Pundit couldn’t believe John Beaton didn’t award Celtic penalty | OneFootball

Former Partick Thistle manager Ian McCall has expressed his surprise that referee John Beaton didn’t point to the spot straight away to penalise Emmanuel Longelo’s foul on Daizen Maeda. The experienced referee waved play on before Kevin Clancy, on VAR, advised his colleague to have a second look at the incident at the pitch side monitor.

At the game, it looked clear that the defender had pulled down Celtic’s No.38 as he seemed set to latch onto the flick on and score to give Martin O’Neill’s side the lead. The Celtic players complained but Beaton waved away the shouts initially.

Speaking to BBC Sportsound, McCall was baffled by John Beaton’s failure to award the penalty without the assistance of his colleague on VAR.

“We got to see three or four angles of it, but you only really need to see the first one of it.

“Longelo has just wrapped his arms around Maeda from behind him. He was just completely hauled to the ground, and I can’t believe the referee never saw it in real time.”

Tomas Cvancara blasted the ball beyond Ward to give Celtic the lead while Longelo was shown red for his role given that he made no effort to play the ball. It was a clear penalty and there were no complaints offered post match.

Celtic rounded off the scoring as Yang scored his second of the afternoon, latching onto a long ball from Vil Sinisalo, before taking a touch and finishing well. The result from Rugby Park means that the title is in Celtic’s hands and eight wins will ensure the return of the Premiership title to Paradise.