Hearts manager Robbie Neilson feels Kevin Clancy got the decisions to send two of his players off against Celtic today wrong, despite them being pretty clear second yellow card offences in both cases.
Alex Cochrane and Toby Sibbick were both red-carded late on for cynical fouls on Callum McGregor and Liel Abada, having already been cautioned earlier in the second half.
For some reason, Neilson took issue, accusing Clancy of being overwhelmed by the Celtic Park crowd.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland [17:22], he said: “Until the referee sends two of our players off, we’re still in the game and in a good position, but once that happens, it makes it very difficult.
“You hope that an experienced referee would recognise the situation. The first one, there’s no need for a second yellow card. It’s the linesman who makes the decision.
“The ball isn’t in an area where it’s causing problems, it’s not reckless, it’s not endangering a player. Sometimes, when the crowd roars you can jump on it and I think that is potentially what happened today.”
This comes as little surprise of course, Neilson loves a moan when he feels like decisions have gone against him. We learned that from last season’s meetings between the two sides.
The Hearts manager should probably be more concerned about his team not testing Joe Hart once throughout the 90 minutes than complaining about two pretty routine decisions right at the end of the game.
Hearts understandably have one eye on Thursday’s Europa League play-off on Thursday but they offered little today and I don’t think Kevin Clancy is the reason.
Celtic deserved all three points, no doubt, and the sending-offs had little say in the direction of the 2-0 result.
In other news, Ange Postecoglou gives honest assessment of win over Hearts as Bhoys move clear of rivals.
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