Celtic’s draw with Rangers was packed full of incidents and controversy as both clubs battled to come out victorious in the race for the title.
The 3-3 result was influenced by a VAR decision that awarded Rangers a penalty after Fabio Silva was adjudged to have been fouled in the box after initially receiving a yellow card for diving.
It was a decision that has been discussed to the hilt as pundits, former players and retired referees all have their opinions on the incident and the only thing that can be said for sure is that no one agrees on whether the award was correct or not.
But John Hartson has a slightly different take on this. The former Celtic hero now says that it wasn’t a penalty but then goes on to say that Beaton should have sent off Silva for diving for his persistent simulation throughout the game.
Silva ‘desperate’ to win a penalty against Celtic
I can’t recall how many times Silva rolled about the Ibrox turf on Sunday but it is fair to say that given the reaction of the Rangers fans at the penalty incident, even they were fed up with him.
And John Hartson goes one step further and says the Ibrox support will have been ‘disgusted’ by his antics.
Hartson said [The Go Radio Football Show], “It’s not a penalty and obviously looking at it again I think Alistair Johnston gets a little nick of the ball.
“I think Silva is desperate to go over. I think there is slight contact on his knee. But I don’t think that’s enough for the referee to give it.
“John Beaton gives a yellow card for Silva. He should have also had a yellow card during the game for his play-acting which was absolutely ludicrous.
“Graeme Souness would have been choking on his biscuits watching him punching the floor as if a knee had been popped out or something like that.
“He gets up and walks away with just nothing at all to complain about. So that was really not nice to see. I think the Rangers fans will be disgusted with him.”
It seems that this will continue to be discussed for a number of days but, unfortunately, we can talk about it but it won’t change the result of the game.
At 2-0 and cruising, Celtic were well on their way to winning that game. But a draw was the outcome and whilst Brendan Rodgers wasn’t too disheartened he will be confident of securing a positive result when Rangers visit Celtic Park in the next few weeks.