Andy Halliday looks silly with ‘astonishing’ claim on Celtic penalty call vs Motherwell

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Celtic’s win over Motherwell has created more VAR headlines as the match officials come under scrutiny once again.

Celtic strolled to a Fir Park win and three points after the initial early stages of the match looked nervy after Motherwell hit the woodwork twice.

However, the Celtic players got a grip of the game and ran out easy winners against a Motherwell side who couldn’t really handle a dominating performance as soon as Luke McCowan’s goal hit the back of the Fir Park net.

Celtic were denied a penalty after Motherwell’s Stephen O’Donnell appeared to bundle over Daizen Maeda in the first half.

But it seems that Andy Halliday has a different take on the penalty call and, to be honest, it won’t really surprise the Celtic fans.

Halliday’s ‘interesting’ verdict on Celtic hero Daizen Maeda

Obviously, being a Motherwell player, Halliday’s view will be skewed and to his credit, he admits that. But the former Rangers midfielder believes that Daizen Maeda was at fault and the referee was correct not to award a spot kick.

Halliday told Superscoreboard [30m 53s], “I don’t think he has been shoved. I really don’t.

“Again, maybe you can accuse me of being biased as it’s a teammate of mine, it’s the team I’m playing for.

“In terms of the penalty, it’s interesting, we’re analysing the game and we’re analysing the second goal [for Celtic].

The way we’re analysing it is someone’s gone to make contact with Alistair Johnston, you’ve got to get in his running line, you can’t just let him get a head of steam and get a free header.

“If you actually look, I actually think Stephen O’Donnell defends the situation well, but Daizen Maeda, he’s an Olympic sprinter, he runs into him.

“It’s a clash. For me, the most astonishing thing is David Dickinson doesn’t give a handball. You either give a penalty or you give a handball.

“What I’m saying is he has to give one or the other. It’s not a goal. That’s for sure.”

The big VAR calls that have gone against Celtic this season

VAR plays a massive part in the Scottish game now and almost every week it seems that is all we discuss here on 67 Hail Hail.

Celtic hero Kyogo Furuhashi was denied a blatant penalty against Kilmarnock after the VAR operators concluded that the Killie keeper didn’t barge down the Hoops striker.

Daizen Maeda had a Celtic goal against St Johnstone disallowed after VAR wrongly said a Perth defender was fouled before the ball hit the back of the net.

No doubt there will be more VAR controversy as the season continues and the Celtic fans will be hoping that further mistakes won’t cost their team points or silverware as it almost did last year.