Salty Derek McInnes rages over Celtic goal, admits Kilmarnock second best

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Derek McInnes was furious with what he claimed was a foul in the build-up to Celtic’s winner against Kilmarnock yesterday.

The Killie boss took umbrage with referee Nick Walsh over his decision to allow Daizen Maeda‘s goal in the second-half of the Hoops’ narrow win in the Scottish Cup.

McInnes was salty at the strike after his player Bobby Wales had equalised following Callum McGregor‘s strike which opened the scoring.

Marley Watkins went down under a challenge from Auston Trusty before Maeda netted and McInnes felt his side were due a free-kick only to discover Celts had been awarded one instead.

And that had the former Rangers midfielder livid and he made that clear in his post-match interview.

• READ MORE: What Celtic could ‘definitely’ have done better in narrow Kilmarnock Scottish Cup win

McInnes felt Auston Trusty fouled Watkins before Celtic winner

“It’s actually a free-kick to us, how the linesman gets involved, I’ve seen it back again, I was right in front of it,” Del told BBC Sportsound.

“Not even that, to not give us the free-kick, but they take it 20 yards away from where the offence was and they’re away up the other end before we’ve had a chance to settle.

“It might sound a bit churlish to choose on that in the build-up to the goal but if the referee makes the right decision 30 seconds later the ball’s not in our net.”

McInnes’ tears aside, the manager acknowledged Celtic were the better team by far on the day.

Celts missed numerous chances which frustrated Brendan Rodgers but the manager was content with the win.

And even the Killie gaffer could not deny the hosts their flowers for the victory as he tipped his cap to his side’s opponents who he admitted “could have put them to bed”.

Celtic dominated the stats despite narrow scoreline

“The odds were stacked against us when the draw was made because no-one expects Kilmarnock to come here and win,” he added.

“We just wanted to be competitive as I think we had a dressing room full of belief and we’ve not got our troubles to seek, we come here a bit depleted and it doesn’t help matters that we picked up two other injuries in the first-half.

“It was all hands to the pump, really.

“Great that we get an equaliser, we hit the bar and had a couple good moments. My keeper’s not had much to do in the first-half but Celtic were enjoying the first-half a wee bit for my liking.

“We finished the first-half strong and decided as we had pre-planned to go man for man in the second-half.

“I didn’t really want extra-time, we wanted to try and go win it and with that comes risk and reward.

“I thought we spooked Celtic with that 15 minutes in the second-half, caused them one or two issues but then they started playing beyond our press.

“Once they got a bit too much space with Kuhn and Maeda, Kyogo, we’re asking a lot from our players and they score.

“So I thought the players battled manfully, we tried to throw things at it to change the narrative of the game but you have to say in the last five or 10 minutes Celtic could have put us to bed.

“It would be hard to say Celtic didn’t deserve it on chances created, but we made a fist of it.”