MICHAEL STEWART can’t make his mind up whether Nir Bitton should have seen red for the challenge on Morelos.

The Israeli seen red for bringing Morelos down in what was deemed to be denying a goal-scoring opportunity.

Celtic were playing well and should have been in front before the flashpoint.

Speaking after the game to RecordSport, Stewart questions the decision but also critiqued Celtic for their overall performance.

The former Hearts player thinks Celtic’s pressing was brilliant but they still lacked any sort of tactical prowess on the day.

“I want to see it again. I think it’s borderline,” the pundit said on BBC Sportsound.

“I don’t think it’s a definite, but I’m not convinced it’s definitely NOT a red card.

“I’m unsure about it. I think he might’ve been (denying a goalscoring opportunity).

“I want to see it again. It’s the angle he’s coming at.

“I don’t know, is my honest answer on it. There’s reasons why that position came about and Celtic were exposed, and it strikes at a bigger story.

“It’s why Celtic are now on the back foot and Rangers are in the ascendancy at the top.

“There’s so many little things that have not gone right at Celtic for a period of time which then lead to looking at that game, where Celtic dominate but not in any tactical sense other than high press, high energy, determination and they’ve got some good players who obviously do some good things.

“It wasn’t like the Betfred Cup Final where Rangers dominated through control of the game in and out of the ball.

“Celtic dominated territory in this game and the reason is they stopped Rangers at source. Second half, it started to drift.

“Obviously, the big moment is the sending off and we’ll never know what would have happened after that.

“Quite clearly you could see the Celtic intensity was not the same as it was in the first half.

“That was the big question mark – could they manage to do that without getting a goal? Obviously they didn’t get a goal, they got a sending off which is a killer blow.”

Celtic sit 19 points off the the top of the table and look as if the game is over with regards to the league.

It should be a time to reflect, give our all during the rest of the season and prepare for next.

Will the board look to make changes before the end of the season? Or are they still in denial change is needed, not just the manager but some personnel.

1 COMMENT

  1. The lineman flagged for the offence Morelos does not need an excuse to make the most of the grapple. Boton new why, he should’ve looked along the line and then stopped the slimmy cun7. Bummer but life goes on. Red card, whether Boton tugged or halfed the cun7. He should’ve the cun7 run on and he would’ve fell over a blade of grass.

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