Robbie Nielson has played the Deflection Card to take attention away from his side’s lack of discipline.
For over 90 minutes Hearts were well in the running to take a point from Celtic but when Alex Cochrane and Toby Sibbick picked up their second yellow cards it took the pressure off Celtic.
The hoops had taken the lead in the 13th minute through Kyogo Furuhashi but failed to build on that breakthrough, during the second half with 11 v 11 the match was evenly contested.
Down to nine men into stoppage time Giorgos Giakoumakis forced an opponent into an own goal to ensure all three points stayed with the champions.
? LISTEN: “When you come here you need strong referees… I don’t think we had it today”.
Hearts boss Robbie Neilson gives his thoughts on their two red cards in today’s 2-0 defeat to Celtic. pic.twitter.com/7DkZ3yy9Jj
— Clyde 1 Superscoreboard (@ClydeSSB) August 21, 2022
When you come here you need strong referees and if you don’t get that it can be difficult at times.
We made 11 fouls and got two red cards and five bookings. Celtic made 12 fouls and got nothing. That’s the difficulty in coming to Glasgow – you need that strength [in the officials] and I don’t think they had it today.
Since two of those fouls and two of the bookings happened after the 89th minute the Hearts boss needs to look more at his own side and their lack of discipline.
It was never a dirty match but if his side had held on to 11 players they might have been able to take advantage of the four additional minutes played against an out of form opponent.
With his predictable deflection game it seems that Sibbick and Cochrane will escape internal punishment for letting down their team-mates while they were still in with a chance of taking something from the fixture.
Strong refs are needed at tynecastle as well he has a short memory lest we forget the first game last season .
Lol the book of excuses is back out again today Neilson brushing the 2 red cards aside blaming the ref as did sevco yesterday as did MARTINJAIL.
MARTINJAIL in particular was going TONTO yesterday as he lost game, but he lost a game couple of weeks ago against sevco the team he does support but never questioned the refs decisions in that or shouted for anything other than to praise Tav and Scotty his own words.
Now THE 3 KLOWNS GIO FANNY, BAWBAG NEILSON and MARTINJAIL are screaming like banshees.
What is Neilson on about both players deserved their 2 yellow cards the ref never made them do it.