Brendan Rodgers slammed Don Robertson’s decision to award Ross County a penalty against Celtic today as the worst decision of the season.
With Celtic looking fairly comfortable on a 2-1 lead Alex Schalk took the most outrageous dive with Erik Sviatchenko at least a yard away.
Both Robertson and his assistant decided that there had been contact and pointed to the penalty spot rather than book Schalk for diving.
Liam Boyce then converted the penalty to give his side a point they didn’t deserve.
“It’s a very disappointing end to the game for us,” Rodgers told Radio Scotland. “The points were taken from us by a horrendous decision by the official.
“I’ve seen some bad decisions up here, I’ve got to say but that was one of the worst ones. It was really poor, he could see it clearly and two there was absolutely no way that Sviatchenko even makes an attempt to play the ball and he gives a penalty against us.
“I really feel for the players that they’ve had the points taken away from us.
“I like to protect the officials, it is a difficult job but I didn’t think that was a difficult decision. It was a very easy decision so I do not know what he was seeing. He needs help, the linesman is on this side as well so he needs to help him as well and tell him that it’s not or why are they there?
“And the fourth official. It’s on this side of the field so there was three of them to make the right decision. So that’s the frustration of it all.”
Celtic took the lead in the first half from a Kieran Tierney shot but that was cancelled out shortly after the break by a Michael Gardyne header.
Substitute Patrick Roberts restored Celtic’s lead before Robertson and Schalk combined to give Ross County a penalty which Liam Boyce converted.
In stoppage time Scott Brown was sent off for a foul on Boyce and could now be suspended for the semi-final of the Scottish Cup next Sunday against Sevco.
