Five years after accusing Ki Sung-Yeung of going down sick a sack of tatties in the Dougie-Dougiegate match at Tannadice Peter Houston has issued an apology to John McGinn after accusing the Hibs midfielder of diving for a penalty in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Falkirk.
With Hibs trailing 1-0 McGinn was chopped down in the penalty box but quickly got back to his feet with referee John Beaton refusing to award a penalty.
Jason Cummings equalised for Hibs but had the penalty been awarded the game could have had an entirely different outcome.
Straight after the final whistle Houston told BBC Scotland: “John is a fantastic young football player, but he shouldn’t be going down easily and I think that’s what he did.
“John’s got to be careful he doesn’t become a player in the headlines all the time for going down.”
On Monday morning after watching a re-run of the match Houston told the Falkirk website: “After reviewing the footage of the incident in hindsight John, who is an extremely talented football player, had a strong case for a penalty and fair credit to the lad for attempting to play on.
“At the time of making the comments I hadn’t seen the footage properly. I’ve called Alan Stubbs this morning to apologise to John for the comments that were made.”
In October 2010 Houston was very outspoken following Celtic’s 2-1 win over Dundee United in which Dougie McDonald changed his mind over awarding a penalty to Celtic then tried to blame assistant referee Steven Craven.
The former Dundee United boss claimed: “Dougie couldn’t get his finger to the spot quickly enough. It’s not the first he has given against us. I thought his performance was below average today. I’ve got to be honest.
“You look at the game and we were holding on quite comfortably and looked dangerous on the counter-attack.
“Yes, Celtic created chances but I thought we coped well with anything they threw at us but then Dougie McDonald conspires to try to give a penalty against us.
“Then it transpires that it is not a penalty. What has happened there? Is it the momentum taking Hooper over the goalkeeper?
“Ki Sung-Yeung went in two minutes later and went down like a sack of tatties. I’ve had players booked for that.”
