BBC pundit Michael Stewart has backed Celtic fullback Greg Taylor after St Mirren boss Jim Goodwin claimed he dived to win the penalty on Wednesday night.
As quoted by the Daily Record, Goodwin came out fighting after the loss to Celtic, claiming that divers should be ‘named and shamed’, being adamant that Taylor had dived.
However, although Stewart didn’t feel it was a penalty he also thought it was harsh to call the left-back a diver due to the contact made between himself and the St Mirren defender.
“Yes, you want to try and flush out diving. There is no doubt it’s something you don’t want in the game.
“But there’s a few caveats in that because there is contact.
“It’s never a penalty as far as I’m concerned but when you are running at pace and there is contact you can go down without it being a dive.
“And I think it’s one of those instances where I can understand why Greg Taylor has gone down but it’s never a penalty kick.
“To take it a step further to name and shame divers, what else can you actually do?
“It’s not as if you are going to nail up a picture in the centre of town saying ‘this guy’s a diver’.”
For two weeks in a row now Celtic seem to have been behind some sort of ‘penalty controversy’.
In both situations, you may not think it’s a penalty but when players are running at pace and there is contact between two players, they will go down as Michael Stewart explains.
You can see the contact from several clips going about of the incident so you certainly wouldn’t expect an Ajeti type situation again. After his appeal was overturned last week I am sure Celtic would be confident in doing so here too.
