For someone that claimed that ‘what happens on the pitch stays on the pitch’ Paul Paton had an awful lot to say about Wednesday’s defeat from Celtic.
Alongside Ryan McGowan the Dundee United midfielder was never far from the flashpoints that took the headlines after Celtic’s 4-0 victory.
As well as commenting on the match Paton seems to be of the opinion that Celtic have been getting decisions for years which presumably includes the Dougiegate fixture at Tannadice in 2010 when Dougie McDonald decided not to award Celtic a penalty then lied to Neil Lennon that he was acting on instructions from assistant Steven Craven.
After being informed of Ronny Deila’s feeling on McGowan’s red card Paton said: “Ronny Deila has an opinion on everything, I don’t really red too much into what Deila has to say or who he puts pressure on, but Celtic as a club can manipulate people more than Dundee United can. That kind of thing has been happening for years.”
Paton was involved in Anthony Stokes’ sending off and seemed more reluctant to discuss that incident saying: “What happens on the pitch stays on the pitch. I have ran across him and I don’t know if he thinks I have meant to hit him but he has lashed out and he has caught me on the side of the face.
“These things happen in the game. I stepped across him and I don’t know if I have caught him with my leg or my arm, I honestly don’t know but it was certainly not intentional.”
Like Celtic United had reasons to complain over the refereeing of Calum Murray.
How Rado Ciernziak stayed on the pitch after his first minute assault on Leigh Griffiths will remain one of the mysteries of this or any other season.
It’s hard to imagine United putting up much resistance if they were down to 10 men with their second choice keeper on the pitch for 89 minutes.
Early in the second half and already on a yellow card Efe Ambrose fouled Nadir Ciftci with Paton quick to deliver his thoughts on that.
“I thought he (Ambrose) was lucky to stay on the park but we have seen it in the last few meetings that we don’t seem to get things like that going for us against Celtic,” Paton claimed.
“How he stayed on the park I will never know as it is a clear yellow card but when you come to places like this you never seem to get these decisions. I don’t know if it is just coincidence but you saw last weekend in the League Cup final that we should have had a clear penalty.
“We didn’t get the penalty and then Efe Ambrose should have got sent off when we were on top in the game and it did not happen. Small things like that change games.
“We have seen injustices in the last few games we have played and that causes frustration and it feels that we do not get any decisions and that it is continual.”
Paton and McGowan are both available for tomorrow’s league match between Celtic and Dundee United.
