I can’t for the life of me- Michael Stewart calls out Alan Muir over Celtic penalty no-show

Michael Stewart has questioned the role of Alan Muir on VAR duty at the Motherwell v Celtic match.

With Celtic leading 1-0 the ball flew into the net off Daizen Maeda with match referee David Dickinson awarding a goal.

Muir checked the incident out with multiple cameras and rightly disallowed the ‘goal’ since it had came off the Celtic’s players arm as he lay on the ground.

The obvious follow up, or play back was to check out why Maeda was on the ground as he raced onto a pass from Alastair Johnston.

Listening to Stewart on Sportscene last night the Daily Record reports the former Hearts midfielder saying:

It was always going to be a disallowed goal, but it’s a penalty kick. I can’t for the life of me figure out how this had now been given.

Daizen Maeda is going in a straight line. Stephen O’Donnell is trying to get in front of him to get the block on him – in terms of getting his body in front – but he never does, and there is a collision and it’s clumsy. It’s a foul. It’s a penalty kick. It’s clear as day.

It didn’t really require any special camerawork to detect that O’Donnell had pushed Maeda, with play stopped there was no time pressure on Muir to come up with the right outcome.

If he felt that Maeda hadn’t been fouled there is a case for booking the Celtic striker for using his arm to try and get a goal.