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Keith Hackett: Celtic did not deserve penalty after John Lundstram handball appeals
We’re delighted to welcome former Premier League referee Keith Hackett as our exclusive Rangers columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Ibrox…
Keith Hackett has insisted that Celtic did not deserve a penalty after appeals over a potential John Lundstram handball against Rangers.
The ex-FIFA official was thrilled with how the officials worked together to make sure that the correct decision was made in the 1-1 draw.
BBC Sportscene footage of the incident [01 May, 13:20], showed that Lundstram was too close to avoid contact, something Hackett agreed with.
“Celtic thought it was,” he told Ibrox News.
“I think the great thing here is that he has an assistant that has come in on the decision, that’s not handball for me. I think here that this shows, this is excellent teamwork – the referee has trust in the assistant and his decision.
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“I think that’s a good call, he can’t do anything about it.”
Passion.
It’s easy for the officials to get caught up in the moment when in charge of an Old Firm derby, but that wasn’t the case here.
John Beaton and his team were not overwhelmed by the appeals and screams from the crowd and instead made the right call.
Lundstram is so close to the man and ball, how on earth was he supposed to get out of the way? Or even deliberately handle it, it’s impossible.
Thankfully, that wasn’t penalised or there would have been a riot in the away end of the stadium.
In other Rangers news, One 25-year-old could now be deemed as surplus to requirements at Ibrox this season