Leigh Griffiths has revealed that Craig Thomson told him he’d take the simulation yellow card on the chin.
The Celtic striker was booked in the 38th minute with Thomson believing that he went down without being contacted by Dick Foster.
Television evidence showed that there was contact between the two players with Griffiths happy to explain the conversation that he had with the card happy whistler.
“He’s refereed other games against me and he’s not seen me dive once,” the former Hibs striker explained.
“I said that to him and he said ‘well I thought you dived that’s why you got booked’ but I’ll take it on the chin. I scored a goal and we got three points.”
Backing up his striker Brendan Rodgers said: “I spoke to Leigh on it and he felt he had contact.
“I will need to see it again on the replay. I thought the referee was excellent today and made good decisions but Leigh felt there was contact and he goes down.
“I haven’t seen anything in training to show that, like a lot of players who like to simulate to provoke the ref into giving a penalty but he’s got a booking so we have to accept it.”
Three other Celtic players were booked by Thomson with Saidy Janko the only one to pick up a yellow card for foul play.
James Forrest was booked for celebrating his goal despite remaining on the pitch behind the goal while Nir Bitton was cautioned for having his jersey grabbed and being pushed by Liam Craig.
