Celtic suffered a 2-0 defeat away to Heart of Midlothian at Tynecastle earlier today, leaving Brendan Rodgers’ men back where they started at the beginning of this weekend.
Adam Idah missed an early penalty following a challenge from Alex Cochrane on Hyunjun Yang in the area, which was immediately followed up by the latter being sent off after a high boot on the same player.
Despite initially being given a yellow card, the powers that be in the VAR control room upgraded the South Korean winger’s caution to a red, setting the scene for a frustrating afternoon.
Hearts then went in front from the spot, with Jorge Grant the beneficiary of an extremely harsh penalty award against Tomoki Iwata, who was adjudged to have handled in the box just before the interval.
Nevertheless, the hosts were in control for the remainder of the proceedings. They doubled their advantage in the second half, as the ball broke to Lawrence Shankland on 56 minutes, resulting in the Scotland international drilling home past Joe Hart.
Truthfully, Celtic couldn’t muster any more than a handful of chances once they were reduced to ten men, leading to an eighth instance of dropped points in the Scottish Premiership this term.
Speaking post-match, Rodgers let rip at the officiating display, stating: “I never like to comment on officials; it’s not something I like to do. But that cost us today. The officiating from on field, to John Beaton being in VAR, that was really, really poor.”
Chris Sutton has his say on the decisions that went against Celtic
On a day that Celtic will be keen to forget swiftly, Chris Sutton has put his feelings on the decisions that went against his old side into the public domain.
Taking to social media platform X, the 50-year-old made it more than apparent that he thought the choice to award a penalty against Iwata was a dubious one, though he didn’t take as much issue with Yang’s dismissal.
Celtic fans have every right to call into question the process that led to both outcomes in the capital, which had a knock-on effect in deciding the end result.
Of course, we didn’t show enough character to get back into the game when we were a man down; nevertheless, it doesn’t take away from the fact there was a strange interpretation of the rules on display.
Either way, the Bhoys now have a week to get themselves back in the saddle before facing Livingston in the Scottish Cup next Sunday.
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