What referee Steven McLean told Brendan Rodgers about disallowed Celtic goal vs Hibs

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Brendan Rodgers is peeved after Celtic were denied a crucial equaliser against Hibs on Saturday.

Hibs ran out as 2-1 winners in Edinburgh as Josh Campbell’s first-half double was enough to inflict just a second Premiership defeat on Celtic this season.

After such a tremendous performance against Bayern Munich on Tuesday, the Hoops were the exact opposite in Leith as they looked sluggish and tired.

There was an improvement in the second period when Celtic dominated possession and had Hibs penned back deep in their own half.

Daizen Maeda reduced the deficit and thought he completed his brace and Celtic’s comeback when firing in to make it 2-2.

• READ MORE: Celtic fans are all saying the same thing about Adam Idah’s performance vs Hibs

Rodgers reveals referee McLean’s disallowed goal explanation

On-field referee Steven McLean awarded the goal but VAR disallowed it because they deemed the ball to have been out of play before Alistair Johnston crossed for Maeda.

The TV camera angles provided by Premier Sports did not seem to provide conclusive evidence of the whole ball being over the line and Rodgers accused VAR Alan Muir of guessing his decision.

VAR claim it was a factual overturn of the goal decision but Rodgers isn’t convinced at all. He revealed to reporters at his post-match presser what McLean told him after the game about the controversy.

Rodgers said: “He (McLean) just said afterwards that it was a VAR decision, that it was factually out. Which will be interesting from the 18-yard line, if you don’t have the actual images.

“That’s what I’m saying, I don’t want to be overly critical until someone produces an actual piece of evidence that tells us the ball was conclusively out.”

Rodgers addresses making three Celtic subs at half-time

67 Hail Hail handed 3/10 ratings to Greg Taylor and Adam Idah as both were hooked by Rodgers at half-time – so too was midfielder Luke McCowan.

Taylor was poor at the first Hibs goal and also picked up a booking for a late challenge, while striker Idah put in a dreadful display as he offered nothing in attack and was culpable for Campbell’s headed effort.

Rodgers addressed the three half-time subs to reporters after the clash and refrained from criticising them because of what they contributed across the season so far.

The Northern Irishman explained: “Again, those guys have scored really important goals for me this season and they’ve performed well.

“I’m having to manage guys like Jota coming back, Jeffrey Schlupp too. So there’s a recovery in that and you’re trying to manage the game time of players.

“But I’m not going to criticise the three guys, because they’ve been very important players in our squad this season. Listen, it’s football. It’s sport. We were brilliant during the week.

“Today, we don’t want to have any excuse for fatigue, tiredness. You’re at a big club, you’ve got to get used to being tired and playing through that. Today, we just weren’t quite on it.”