Hibs boss makes Celtic penalty admission, VAR thinking outside the box

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The Celtic Star

·23. Februar 2026

Hibs boss makes Celtic penalty admission, VAR thinking outside the box

Hibs manager David Gray believes Matthew MacDermid was right to dismiss Celtic defender Auston Trusty but suggested his own team might have been fortunate to avoid conceding a penalty…

22.02.2026 Celtic v Hibernian, Scottish Premiership. Liam Scales rages at Matthew MacDermid after being fouled at a corner but no penalty given. Kenny Ramsay IMAGO

Trusty was shown a red card for violent conduct during the second half of Hibs’ 2-1 victory at Celtic Park.

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From the resulting corner, Liam Scales went down inside the penalty area following a clear pull, but appeals for a penalty were waved away. Gray acknowledged that, on another day, the decision could have gone against his side.

Clear Penalty but VAR comes up with this Lie "Incident outside the Box" when there's NO Hibs players outside the box.
– Sonntag, 22. Februar 2026

Speaking via The Herald post-match, Gray said: “I think the red, you can’t do that. You can’t lift your hands with that aggression. That’s violent conduct and a clear and obvious red. Jamie has an issue with his shoulder and almost put his out so it shows how hard he’s hit him.

“The penalty, I’ve seen it from one angle. There was a coming together. He goes down. If it gets given on the field it probably doesn’t get overturned. It went with us on the day. They’d probably gone against us previously.”

Blatant foul and shirt pull on Liam Scales, where he would've ended up in the area where the Hibs player headers it. It is as clear a penalty as you will ever see.
– Sonntag, 22. Februar 2026

Goals courtesy of Felix Passlack and Kai Andrews secured Hibs’ first victory at Celtic Park since 2010 and in doing so dented the Hoops’ title hopes with 11 games remaining.

“You have to truly believe you can do it,” Gray said. “It took a complete performance. We had to defend and soak up pressure from Celtic to do that. I was disappointed with the goal we conceded because that was avoidable but apart from that my goalie didn’t have many big saves. It’s a difficult place to come.

VAR flashed up saying there was an incident outside the box on this. As clear a penalty as you’ll likely ever see.
– Sonntag, 22. Februar 2026

“Back to back wins is good, especially here after St Mirren. It’s not been done for a very long time against a team that people said had a poor result in Europe, but they were against a top European team.

“Domestically they’d had something like nine wins and one draw before this and they’re right bang in a title race for a reason. Massive credit has to go to the boys because they deserved it. That puts us five behind Motherwell.

“They have a game in hand but we still have to play them twice and the teams around us and we’ve showed again if we go toe to toe and get complete performance we’re capable of beating anyone. We have to be 100 percent at it. We have a lot of young players coming through and we will get better as the season ends.”

Celtic in the Thirties by Matt Corr. Click on image to order