Media blackout on Celtic’s Pittodrie penalty claim?

Once again Celtic had very strong claims for a penalty dismissed as they won 2-1 at Aberdeen.

Once again Sky Sports were reluctant to analyse the incident. This time Jack Milne briefly raised his right arm to block a cross from Sebastian Tounekti.

There was a brief pause for a VAR check by Chris Graham. Match referee Nick Walsh delayed play but soon restarted with a corner kick to Celtic.

At the time Sky Sports showed one replay of the incident. They didn’t use a close up or slow motion on the arm contact.

It was a token review of the handball.

CELTIC SUFFER AGAIN WITH VAR BLIND SPOT

At least it was more than the two penalty claims at Ibrox on Sunday, neither of which were replayed during Sky’s match coverage.

In the 11th minute Liam Scales was rugby tackled to the ground by Tochi Chukwuani at a corner.

In the 82nd minute Tounekti had his jersey pulled for six seconds before being man-handled off the pitch by Dujon Sterling.

John Beaton opted against awarding a penalty for either incident. He was supported in that view by his close friend Steven McLean on VAR duty.

Sky Sports never replayed either incident. No mention was made of a VAR review taking place. Neither penalty claim featured in the extensive post match analysis.

QUESTION: It looked like a really tight call for offside at Nygren’s goal?

O’NEILL: Yeah, absolutely, because it took a long time. And then when the fourth official was saying to me that they’re looking at perhaps two events in the thing, but then you start to really worry about it.

But thankfully we saw it through. I don’t know about you, but I thought it looked a penalty for us in the first half. You haven’t seen it yet? His hand was out there, I thought, in an unnatural position.

It was a tough game, we saw it through and it keeps us going.

QUESTION: Were you always confident the goal would come, Martin?

The initial question suggests that Celtic got a lucky break with the goal.

VAR DECISION ESCAPES SCRUTINY

O’Neill volunteered a fresh issue with supporting evidence. Chris Graham on VAR refused to apply the Laws of the Game, a corner was awarded.

A traditional follow up would be ask O’Neill what explanation he was given. That could have come from Walsh after the match or on the touchline from the fourth official.

No one thought to ask O’Neill anything else on Celtic’s penalty claim. The same publishers and broadcasters will be invited by Celtic to Lennoxtown tomorrow to preview Sunday’s Scottish Cup tie at Ibrox.

Celtic’s penalty claim will be debated on social media, covered by fan media sites but won’t be returned to at Friday’s media conferences.