Michael Beale admits his verdict of Celtic derby refereeing call was badly wrong

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Rangers manager Michael Beale has walked back his claim that Celtic’s second goal in last week’s derby win should have been ruled out.

The Ibrox boss claimed in the immediate aftermath of the Bhoys’ joyous 3-2 victory that Kyogo Furuhashi’s second goal shouldn’t have counted because Jota handled the ball in the build-up following a mistake from Ben Davies.

However, speaking today, Beale has admitted he got that one wrong – after distancing himself from the letter sent by Rangers to the Scottish FA.

Michael Beale does Celtic goal U-turn

As quoted by Football Scotland, he said: “I wasn’t involved around the asking of questions and stuff like that. For me, the game was done. I disagreed with one decision, I got it wrong in another, because the angle I had seen I thought it had hit the boy’s arm. It hadn’t so fair play, but I still think the first decision was the wrong one. It’s up for debate, but the game’s gone. We’re not going to be able to change the result.”

It’s a pretty drastic change in tone from the bitter post-match comments from both Beale and Tavernier in the wake of last week’s match.

There was a lot of deflection after Celtic surged 12 points clear in the table, but apparently, Beale is not prepared to stand by some of the comments made in the heat of the moment.

Celtic deserved the win last week and all the moaning and groaning otherwise simply masks the fact that Rangers haven’t been able to lay a finger on the Bhoys this season. That was the case under Giovanni van Bronckhorst and it hasn’t changed much now Beale is in charge.

If they want to present a different narrative than that, it only suits Celtic because it will mean they aren’t dealing with the main issues that are preventing them from derby success.

In other news, Celtic legend Willie Wallace hails ‘outstanding’ Kyogo Furuhashi.