Jim Goodwin has riled Neil Lennon with his continued digs at Celtic star Greg Taylor this week.
Taylor was put in the spotlight by the St Mirren manager after winning a penalty at the Simple Digital Arena on Wednesday night. The award allowed Odsonne Edouard to put Celtic 2-0 ahead against Goodwin’s Buddies on a night that saw the Hoops run out 4-0 winners.
Immediately after the game, Goodwin accused Taylor of allowing his legs to “crumple” beneath him [Glasgow Times]. A day later, the Paisley boss was again in the news as he stated that not even his seven-year-old son would’ve gone down under the same pressure [Daily Record].
This appears to have seriously irked Lennon. Especially considering penalties have been given under minimal contact throughout the season.
As quoted by the Scottish Sun, the Hoops boss retorted: “He’s out of order — well out of order. Greg didn’t dive. I’m not having other managers accusing my players of diving when it’s clearly not true.
“Jim needs to rein it in a bit. It was quite clear Greg was pulled back and he was also clipped by Ryan Flynn at the top of his foot. The referee deemed it a penalty. Look, he’s gone on the wrong side of Flynn, he’s got across him. Whether Ryan has clipped him accidentally or not, it has been enough to bring Greg down. So I don’t see where anyone can accuse him of diving.
“People say ‘Oh, it’s soft’. We’ve looked at it again and there are two contacts — one on his arm and one on his foot. Whenever we get a penalty these days there is a whole controversy about it, but it is clear there was contact. Where, all of a sudden, this emergence of diving’s coming from, I don’t know.”
Jim Goodwin went a touch overboard; Neil Lennon right to defend his players
Goodwin’s initial reaction to the penalty incident was enough. He’s quite entitled to say whether he felt it was soft or not, even if there was a bit of a dig with the “crumple” reference.
To then continue on with it and make the comparison with his son, it’s going a little overboard. Especially considering it was nowhere near the main reason St Mirren lost the game either.
Lennon will feel he has a duty to protect his players from external criticism. With Albian Ajeti being given an unfair spotlight on him over the last week too, it seems a bit bizarre that all of a sudden there are controversies surrounding these kinds of penalty kicks.
The type of penalties where there is contact and the player anticipates it. You see it all over Europe. Heck, you see it all over Scotland with plenty of teams getting their fair share of penalties from it. It’s happened against us countless times in the past and there hasn’t been such a storm made of the incidents.
So why then is there such focus put on the likes of Ajeti and Taylor when both, at worst, were simply soft decisions? You can blame Lennon for a lot this season, but he’s right to stand by his players here.
All of a sudden, Celtic are starting to get some penalty kicks and controversy is booming because of it. God forbid we get another against St Johnstone this afternoon.
In other news, one Celtic star has been taken aback by the avalanche of criticism launched at the club.
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