Celtic get McLean warning for Dens Park clash

Steven McLean will referee Celtic’s match at Dundee on Sunday.

The Glasgow based official has refereed the hoops three times this season with Celtic yet to record a win.

McLean has been in charge of both matches away to Hearts and also the January Glasgow Derby which turned out to be Wilfried Nancy’s final defeat.

In his last Celtic match, at Tynecastle in January he was persuaded by VAR John Beaton to send off Auston Trusty after initially awarding a yellow card. Ten man Celtic lost a late equaliser.

MCLEAN AND JOHN BEATON

Those roles were reversed at Ibrox on March 1 when McLean was on VAR and highlighted the Dujon Sterling handball that Beaton eventually awarded as a penalty to Celtic.

Former leader of the Scottish Tories Douglas Ross will be one of McLean’s assistants with Matthew MacDermid on VAR.

The Celtic match kicks off at 4.30pm on Sunday, at 2pm Hearts are away to Livingston which could leave Celtic trailing by eight points by the time they get back into action.

The match at Dens is the seventh last one of the SPFL Premiership season.

After that trip Celtic play four of their final six matches at home but that will only be significant if they can take full points from Steven Pressley’s side.

So far Celtic have lost all three of their visits to Dundee, a sharp contrast to recent seasons where they were almost unbeaten.

Much will depend on the side that Martin O’Neill selects for the match with a number of players troubled by injury.

Callum McGregor lasted an hour of the defeat at Dundee United with Colby Donovan picking up a knee injury in that match.

Arne Engels is expected to be back in contention for a place with mystery surrounding the fitness of Julian Araujo and Tomas Cvancara.

Celtic’s final pre-split fixture is at home to St Mirren on April 11.