Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell was left feeling aggrieved after his side were on the wrong end of debatable refereeing decisions in the 4-0 defeat to Celtic on Boxing Day. Referee Ross Hardie awarded a penalty to Celtic in first-half injury time when Hyun-jun Yang hit the deck under minimal contact from Motherwell goalkeeper Aston Oxborough, from which Arne Engels opened the scoring. It followed an incident earlier in the match when Motherwell's Tawanda Maswanhise was booked for simulation after going down in the box under a challenge from Yang.
VAR checked both decisions and sided with the referee. Celtic went on to record a comfortable victory through second half goals from Daizen Maeda, Nicolas Kuhn and Reo Hatate but Kettlewell's frustration was with the referee's interpretation of the two penalty claims, insisting that the yellow card for his own player was not too disimilar to the award which Celtic benefited from. "This is where I'm left baffled," Kettlewell said as he addressed Maswanhise's yellow card for diving.
"I don't think it's a penalty, but it's not a dive. He has not tried to buy a penalty. He's running at pace, the Celtic player is touch tight.
I would say that there is some sort of contact there, but not enough for a penalty in my opinion, and the referee instantly books him and regards it simulation. I'm kind of blown away by that, I really am. "I think we've probably all seen at the time that it was close.
Are we claiming for a penalty? I think you nat.
