Watch: The clear Celtic penalty decision that’s again been missed by the media

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Surprise surprise, another Celtic game in the books, another pro-Celtic decision being desperately over-analysed.

This week in our dramatic 3-2 win over Dundee, it’s the Dens Park club’s late penalty shout that’s for some reason being discussed to death. Jota headed the ball onto his arm in what was nowhere near a deliberate handball. Even so, BBC Sportsound was itching to quiz Mark McGhee on it post-match. The written press did the same [The Herald].

BBC Sportscene then analysed the decision with both Marvin Bartley and Leanne Crichton dismissing the idea a penalty should’ve been awarded against the Hoops. But of course, there’s been absolutely no mention of the Giorgos Giakoumakis penalty incident in the first half. Take a look at the video below:

Dundee defender Vontae Daley-Campbell clearly elbows Giakoumakis in the face in the penalty area. This stops the Celtic striker challenging for the ball and should clearly be a penalty. There’s an argument there to say it should be a red card too.

Jackie McNamara states in the video above that it’s a “dangerous challenge”. You can’t deny that either. It’s clearly done on purpose and should’ve led to spot-kick that would’ve given Celtic a 3-1 advantage had we scored it.

Of course, very little media attention has gone to this, if any. Ange Postecoglou wasn’t asked about it post-match and neither was McGhee. It wasn’t highlighted on Sportscene, and there certainly haven’t been whole articles written on it as debate is instead focused on the Dundee penalty shout.

Celtic have every right to wonder why decisions that go against them aren’t being highlighted

This is following a frustrating trend now. Let’s not forget it was the same last week when we faced Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup. All the spotlight was on a Raith penalty call that they weren’t given. Nobody wanted to mention the fact that Giakoumakis was wrongly flagged for offside when he would’ve been clear on goal with a man alongside him.

The same goes for the victory at Pittodrie earlier this month. The debate was all about whether our winning goal should’ve stood and whether Liel Abada was offside or interfering with play. Only Michael Stewart brought up the fact that Jota had a perfectly good goal disallowed at 2-0 that would’ve killed the game.

Again, we get it. Celtic supporters can accept that decisions go different ways and you don’t always get them all. But whilst Rangers fans, in particular, continue to roar and cry about VAR and decisions that we keep getting, it doesn’t help that the media won’t highlight the ones going against us.

Sure, it doesn’t make for a compelling narrative does it? It’s a much more attractive story to pretend the underdogs have been done out of a result than it is to admit the favourites should’ve been given a chance to extend their lead. Makes people feel a bit better about Celtic picking up the win I suppose.

But that doesn’t matter. We’re talking about the facts here, We were denied a sontewall penalty yesterday that would likely have made the afternoon a lot more comfortable.

It would be nice if the impartial parties highlighted it as keenly as they are questionable decisions that go for us.

In other news, Celtic boss loving Giorgos Giakoumakis’ blistering reaction to Livingston penalty miss