Brendan Rodgers was frustrated with the length of checks at Celtic Park today as the Bhoys picked up a comprehensive 5-0 victory over Buckie Thistle in the Scottish Cup.
The cup holders were expected to comfortably take care of the Highland League outfit on home turf, and did so, racking up chance after chance from the first to the last whistle.
Paulo Bernardo, Odin Holm, Kyogo Furuhashi, Luis Palma and Rocco Vata were all on the scoresheet. And there could have been more.
In the opening few minutes, Liel Abada was taken down in the box and there was a potential penalty, but replays showed he was offside thus invalidating a Buckie infraction.
However, it seemed to take longer than necessary for the refereeing team to decide on whether it was a spot kick or not.
Rodgers was left bemused, stating post-match [Clyde SSB]: “The frustration was the penalty one that was looked at. It shouldn’t have been looked at – it was offside.
“They had to, for some reason. It’s protocol according to the fourth official. They have to look to see if it’s a penalty first before they look to disallow it because it’s offside.
“It just seems ridiculous, really. If it’s offside then the penalty doesn’t even matter… as we know.”
He’s clearly referencing the recent and much-talked-about incident during Celtic’s derby win over Rangers that prompted a bizarrely furious reaction from the Ibrox club.
I doubt the Bhoys will be demanding that the Scottish FA release the audio on this one, despite Rodgers’ frustrations.
Like most, the manager is annoyed with how much VAR interrupts the flow of football matches. The authorities should be focused on improving that rather than indulging madcap theories from other clubs.
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