Sportscene pundits say No to late penalty claim in Celtic’s win over Dundee

With Celtic now three points out in front in the race for the Premiership title it seems that refereeing decisions are under more scrutiny than ever. 

Sunday’s lunchtime match at Tannadice found Bobby Madden in the firing line from both sets of supporters as the points were shared. 

At Celtic Park Ange Postecoglou’s side had the chance to stretch their lead but a visit from bottom-of-the-table Dundee was far from plain sailing. 

Celtic were off form, particularly defending set-pieces but the same could be said about referee Gavin Duncan who somehow managed to miss a very obvious attack on Giorgos Giakoumakis by Vontae Daley-Campbell that should have resulted in a penalty kick and red card for the Dundee defender. 

To even things up the team on Sportscene decided to look into a penalty claim from Dundee that both Leeann Crichton and Marvin Bartley felt had no merit. 

It came in the final minute of stoppage time as Celtic hung on to their 3-2 lead, a cross into the penalty box was met by the shoulder of Jota who gleefully botted the ball far up the park with the final whistle following almost instantly.

Watching the BBC Scotland show and the performance of referee Duncan, The Sun reports:  

His decision was unanimously backed by Leeann Crichton and Livingston’s Marvin Bartley as they analysed the Sunday showdown alongside Steven Thompson. 

After watching the incident back, Crichton said: “You can understand why there was claims, particularly at that stage of the game. For me, it’s not a penalty. He’s went up and won the header and then almost heads it onto his own hand. He doesn’t know much about it. 

“When you freeze it, you can understand if it was given but, speaking from a player’s perspective, I would be really disappointed for that to be given against me, particularly getting the head on it first.” 

Bartley backed his fellow pundit – insisting the rules of the game justify the decision to deny the Dundee penalty claim. 

He added: “There is no chance that’s a penalty kick. He’s tried to head the ball away. It has hit his hand, we know that, but not every time it hits your hand is it a handball. 

“The rules state if it hits another part of your body first, then hits your hand, it can’t be given as a penalty kick” 

Yesterday was Duncan’s first Celtic match of the season.