Neil McCann’s red card verdict on Tannadice incident

Neil McCann and Marvin Bartley were amazed that Kieran Freeman avoided being sent off against Celtic in Dundee United’s 2-0 defeat from the champions.

The defender picked up a booking in the 51st minute of the match for a late lunge that caught Greg Taylor on the ankle.

A few minutes later as Celtic attacked down the left Freeman stuck out an arm to block a pass by Jota into the penalty box.

Despite being close to the incident referee Don Robertson didn’t blow for a penalty but at the next break in play he took up the request to review the incident on the pitch-side monitor.

After taking a second look at the incident the match referee reversed his decision, pointed to the penalty spot but opted out of further action against Freeman.

Looking in on Sportscene tonight the Daily Record reports:

The pair stated that while the decision to award the penalty was easy, the 22-year-old should have been shown a second yellow card by Robertson. Queen of the South boss Bartley said when reviewing the penalty call: ‘There is no arguing with this one.

One thing that did surprise me – and I don’t want to see players sent off – for me that is a deliberate handball. I’m not sure how Freeman managers to stay on the pitch after his earlier tackle where he was booked, just a couple of minutes earlier. But yeah, that was an easy one.”

McCann chimed in: “That was one of the easier ones (VAR decisions). I think the idea behind it (the check) was to see if it was inside or outside. As Marvin said, I don’t know how it’s not a red card, because it’s absolutely deliberate.”

There was no further scoring but against 10 men for 35 minutes Celtic may well have added a few more goals.