Kenny Miller believes it was clever play by Callum McGregor to pull back Ross Tierney and earn himself a red card, but insists Ange Postecoglou’s “covering defender” argument doesn’t hold water.
The Celtic captain was given his marching orders late on in the Hoops’ 2-1 win over Motherwell that sent them back to the top of the Premiership table. Goals from Kyogo and Reo Hatate gathered either side of Josip Juranovic’s own goal had the hosts ahead as the game ticked towards full-time.
A slack pass from Hatate put the points in jeopardy though, and presented Tierney with a clear run on Joe Hart’s goal with the ‘keeper well off his line. McGregor instinctively did what he had to do and grabbed Tierney’s shirt, which resulted in a straight red card. Motherwell failed to capitalise from the resulting free-kick, and the champions saw out the remainder of the game for a deserved victory.
Miller praised McGregor for sacrificing himself and ensuring his team didn’t drop points for the second successive league game. Postecoglou admitted he didn’t have the best view of the incident at the time, but felt there may have been cover and wasn't sure it was a red card.
But former Rangers and Celtic striker Miller was adamant that Stephen Welsh was never going to catch Tierney, and had no arguments with the call to dismiss McGregor.
“If he doesn’t, then it’s a straightforward chip over because Joe Hart’s in no-man’s land,” he said on Sportscene. “There is a covering player, but he’s not getting there. No way.
“He [Tierney] can even take a touch towards Joe Hart and Welsh was never, ever going to get there, It’s the right decision because in the initial moment, it’s denying a goalscoring opportunity. No doubt about it.
“It’s a clever one, because had he gone through, he’s one-on-one with Joe Hart and could be lifting it over the top of him or going round him and making it 2-2. It would have been an interesting last few minutes had it been that and a chance that Celtic could have dropped more points.
“So it was a really, really clever foul. He’s had to take the punishment and they’ll have to do without their captain for the next game. But he could potentially have stopped them dropping points there.”
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