Are Celtic bothered by Rangers VAR penalty storm? An emphatic answer is delivered from a 'buzzing' dressing room
Anthony Ralston insists the Rangers VAR penalty storm has put NO dampener on Celtic's success with all the Hoops stars 'buzzing' with the Premier Sports Cup Final win.
SFA head of referees Willie Collum spoke today as he slammed duo Alan Muir and Frank Connor over the 'unacceptable' decision not to give the Light Blues a penalty at Hampden last weekend after Liam Scales' foul on Vaclav Cerny. A full audio exchange from Clydesdale House has been released in the wake of the dramatic showdown in Mount Florida.
It was a thrilling 3-3 draw after 90 minutes with the scoreline staying the same in extra-time. It was over to penalties with Kasper Schmeichel the hero for Celtic and Ridvan Yilmaz ultimately the sinner for Rangers as the Dane denied the Turkish defender from the spot in what proved the key and decisive moment.
Ralston said: "I don't feel it has put any sort of dampener on our success. We're all buzzing, we're all extremely happy with the outcome of the game. We got our hands on the trophy, and that's all we really care about to be honest, everything else is not something that we're going to overly pay attention to. It's not obviously our place to do that.
"From my point of view, I didn't really look too much into it after the game. There was an on-field decision made at the time, which isn't down to us to make as players. There wasn't much said about it until after the game, when ultimately we'd won. So it's part and parcel of football. And, I can speak on behalf of the other lads, we don't take much to do with it, to be honest, Let the officials do that side of it. And the important thing for us is we had a job to do, which was win the trophy, which we're all delighted that we've managed to do."
Asked whether he was surprised by the extent of the fallout from the controversial decision, he added: "Not overly, it's the football world, there's going to be opinion, there's going to be different views on things. But as players, we're just solely focused on the football and getting the job done, which I've said. We're delighted that we've done and it's not something that we're going to dwell on to be honest."
Celtic moved ahead in the silverware race with Rangers, with the weekend cup win taking them on to 119 trophies - one more than their Old Firm rivals.
Ralston said: "It's an important point in our history and as a club and we're delighted to be able to deliver that to the fans all around the world, everyone that tuned in, everyone that was at the game, everybody connected. It's a special thing. It's another marker for us as a group of players and we want to keep delivering success, and that's what drives us every day to do that."
