Ronny Deila has pointed the finger of blame at second assistant referee Alan Muir following Celtic’s Scottish Cup exit to Inverness Caley Thistle.
Muir was six yards from the incident with an uninterrupted view as Josh Meekings lifted his arm to push away Leigh Griffiths netbound header.
Despite his closeness to the incident Muir, like the assistant referee and Stevie McLean never budged as Meekings played on despite the blatant offence.
“I don’t think I have to say much about that, I think everybody saw what happened,” Deila said. “Maybe we need seven referees? One on each post.
“Their one task is to look at what is happening in the six-yard box and on the goal line. You can’t blame the main referee for that.
“Referees make mistakes as well but this mistake was very hard to take. It’s a hard blow for the boys and for us. We’re very disappointed and we had control 11 versus 11 and we should have killed the game off.”
Ten minutes into the second half there was no issue with McLean’s decision making as he sent off Craig Gordon, a decision that Deila had no argument with.
“That was okay, the rule is as it is,” the Celtic boss added. “I think the rule is very hard, but that’s nothing to do with the ref. The other decision is quite different. It was a very difficult situation. A 50-50 challenge and he came out a little too late.”
Meekings admitted to handling the ball afterwards and joked about getting away with it.
