Livingston boss Marvin Bartley rejects ‘paranoid conspiracy theories’ over late Celtic winners

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Celtic fans have had to listen to all sorts of nonsense surrounding the team’s ability to score late winners this season.

After Julian Aruajo’s late Celtic goal at Kilmarnock, pundits like Kris Boyd and Ally McCoist have been yammering on about Celtic’s time added-on as if they are only of benefit to the Parkhead club.

And next to chip in is Livingston manager Marvin Bartley as he admits he is simply not buying into all the nonsense he’s heard about Celtic’s late goals in the media this week.

Bartley told the Daily Record, “I could never be that paranoid.

Why have Celtic been able to score so many late goals this season?

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“Time added on happens in every game and not for one second do I think there is anything untoward going on where the match officials are concerned.

“I’ve been in Scottish football for over 10 years, however, and I know there are plenty of people who do go in for the conspiracy theories.”

Bartley says Celtic’s ‘quality’ earns wins not match officials

The conspiracy theory about Celtic has been thoroughly debunked this week, as it has been proven that it is Rangers who have had the most time added on out of all SPFL clubs on average this season.

But even at that, Bartley still rejects the notion that Celtic and the Ibrox club are benefitting from some wider deception from the SFA officials.

Bartley continued, “Rangers were up against it on and off the park when they came to our place last September so I expected them to put everything into the time added on.

“Likewise Celtic when they were playing at home and brought on a quality player in Alex [Oxlade-Chamberlain] late in the game to see what he could do to help them out of a spot.

“All I can say is I’ll be delighted if we’re on level pegging with Rangers after regulation time has ended on Sunday. I’ll take my chances after that.”

How many points Celtic’s late goals have saved

Celtic fans have watched their team score no less than five late goals this season to keep the defence of the league title alive and the bid to win the Scottish Cup.

But in the Scottish Premiership, the late winners have saved Celtic from falling behind in the title race by a further 10 points.

This has been a trend at Celtic for decades and while many fans agree that this is not sustainable, plenty will be thanking the team’s mental strength to continually keep going until the final whistle.