Ryan Bowman has explained that he didn’t go out to deliberatly hurt Kieran Tierney.
The Celtic defender was on the end of an x-rated attack from Bowman when Celtic beat Motherwell back in February.
As Tierney controlled the ball close to the touchline the Motherwell man lunged in with a dangerous challenge that put the ball out of play before crunching in just above the defenders knee.
Fortunately for the Scotland defender his foot wasn’t planted on the ground otherwise the damage would have been severe.
Thanks to the evasive action of Tierney the only damage was stud marks above his knee but despite that lucky escape Bowman is still playing the ‘hard but fair’ card.
???? | Kieran Tierney hits back at Ryan Bowman following THAT horror challenge: https://t.co/wboV90KwPb pic.twitter.com/NlC58uKh8K
— Read Celtic (@ReadCeltic) February 20, 2017
“I didn’t go in to hurt Tierney,” he told The Sun. “He had a bad touch and I went in to kick the ball.
“I kicked the ball out for a throw-in and, as I came down, I caught him on the knee.
“It’s not as if I’ve gone, ‘There you go’. I’ve kicked the ball away and as I’ve come down landing, I’ve caught him.”
It was Bowman’s elbow into Fabio Cardoso in the Betfred semi final win over Sevco that generated most headlines.
Amazingly both referee Steven McLean and the SFA Compliance Officer felt that attack wasn’t worthy of punishment, Cardoso has still to return to action.
Craig Thompson will referee today’s match, his third Celtic fixture of the season.