CELTIC saw-off a battling Kilmarnock side to regain top spot in the Scottish Premiership table on Sunday.
And it was a game with PLENTY of flashpoints.
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Derek McInnes‘ Killie had the better of the first half but ended up going in a goal down at the break after Callum McGregor‘s wicked cross ended up finding the net.
Celtic‘s man of the moment, Nicolas Kuhn, then scored a slick second to kill the game and send Brendan Rodgers‘ men back to the summit of the league.
Away from the plentiful goal mouth action, there were also a fair few incidents for referee Nick Walsh to sort out.
In the end, NO red cards were dished out – and former top Scottish ref Bobby Madden reckons that was incorrect outcome.
There were three incidents in particular that caught the attention and Madden has had his say on all of them.
The first came just 10 minutes into the game when Killie defender Joe Wright caught Adam Idah in the face with his elbow during an aerial duel, with the Celtic striker left bloodied.
The referee dished out a yellow card, with VAR Don Robertson satisfied the incident didn’t require his further intervention.
The other two incidents came during a rather bruising final 10 minutes.
The first saw Celtic’s Reo Hatate lunge in on Liam Donnelly, catching the Killie man with his studs on the knee.
Once more, a yellow card was shown and after a lengthy review of the footage, the VAR once again decided not to get involved.
A few minutes after that, Donnelly himself was booked after a late challenge on Hoops keeper Kasper Schmeichel, who was livid with the tackle.
Donnelly’s foot caught Schmeichel’s foot, but the Killie ace also appeared to swing an arm in the act of making the challenge, albeit failing to make any further contact with the Dane.
A yellow card was shown once again with no further VAR intervention.
Going through all of those incidents on Instagram, Madden reckons yellow was correct on TWO of those decisions.
However, he feels that Hatate SHOULD have been sent off.
Analysing the first incident involving Wright and Idah, Madden reckons yellow was correct as, despite the hefty contact, the Kilmarnock defender was using his arm as leverage.
He said: “So consideration for the referee is does the Kilmarnock player use his arm as a weapon or as a tool?
“I think you can see he never once looks at the Celtic player using the arm for leverage so the yellow for reckless is correct.”
He then turned his attention towards the Hatate challenge and reckons it should have ‘undoubtedly’ been upgraded to a red card.
Madden reckons the nature of the Japan international’s tackle endangered the safety of Donnelly and thus met the criteria for serious foul play.
He added: “Here you see the Celtic player misjudge the ball and then lunges in, makes contact with the studs on the knee.
“Undoubtedly this should be a red card for serious foul play as it endangers the safety of the opponent. the contact is there so a red card have been recommend by VAR.”
That was a sentiment agreed with by the Sky Sports panel, with Kris Boyd saying it was “a red card all day long.”
The Donnelly challenge on Schmeichel, however, has split opinion.
Speaking on BBC Sportscene, former Rangers striker Billy Dodds felt Donnelly was lucky to avoid a red card for the ‘swipe’ with his arm towards the goalkeeper, but conceded the lack of contact probably saved him.
That was the sentiment behind Madden’s verdict that the yellow card shown was ultimately correct.
He pointed to a section of the laws of the game that was REMOVED a decade ago that previously might’ve seen Donnelly dismissed.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
Madden said: “Yellow card correct. It shows a disregard for the opponent – strike or attempt to strike was removed from the laws as a red card 10 years ago.
“So yellow for disregard, correct.”
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