Brendan Rodgers has delivered a very clear defence of his players against diving allegations.
It has taken until the end of November for the hoops to be awarded their first two domestic penalties of the season with both awards greeted with dismay by Motherwell.
???? BR on diving allegations: “I don’t have any instructions. We won the fair play award last year. We have values here as a club and a team. This is a group of players who are very honest. We’ve got our first two penalties of the season and my opinion is that they are penalties.”
— Celtic Football Club (@celticfc) November 30, 2017
There seems to be an assumption that because Celtic have got the best squad of players in the country that a higher set of rules should be applied before they get decisions.
On Saturday Rodgers will be without Moussa Dembele after the French striker was on the receiving end of a brutal attack from Cedric Kipre in the Betfred Cup Final.
Last month Willie Collum refused to award a penalty against Hibs when Efe Ambrose used both hands to drag back Scott Sinclair with two minutes left to play and the scores level.
At Fir Park last night Scotland’s top referee seemed to have a better grasp of the rules.