For reasons that only John Beaton can explain Steven Naismith was allowed to stay on the pitch at Hampden beyond the 18th minute after stamping on Scott Brown.
After pushing Scott Brown to the deck the Bellshill based official awarded Celtic a free kick, with the Celtic skipper grounded Naismith stood on Brown with no further action taken by the match referee.
Despite the match being a showpiece and only 17 minutes being played the same set of Laws apply from the first minute to the 90th– and through to extra time.
It’s not the first time that Beaton has allowed a physical attack on Brown to go unpunished, at Ibrox in December 2018 Alfredo Morelos had a kick at the Celtic midfielder that brough a foul but no further sanction.
Mind just before Christie scored Naismith stood on Brown? I’m assuming it’ll be all over the press this week the way it would be if it was the other way round ? pic.twitter.com/QyAO7O2SF1
— AM (@annemarie6377) December 20, 2020
Early in the second half Naismith did get booked for knocking Brown to the ground as they waited on a Hearts corner being delivered.
The Jambos captain did last the full 120 minutes but after scoring the first penalty of the shoot out he had to pick up a runners-up medal after Conor Hazard saved twice from Naisy’s Jambo team-mates.
Previously.
A peach from Christie to put Celtic 1-0 ahead gives a little cover to Naismith following his stamp on Scott Brown.
Ref let it go. Again. Last time (pictured 2018) he got a retrospective 2 match ban. The pattern of behaviour is as obvious as the pattern of his boots on Brown’s leg pic.twitter.com/FQ05rlESst— Tony McKelvie (@TonyMcKelvie) December 20, 2020
Should Steven Naismith have seen red for this ‘stamp’ on Celtic skipper Scott Brown? https://t.co/HW6emufj5A pic.twitter.com/drxii6uB70
— Scottish Sun Sport (@scotsunsport) May 6, 2018
