Celtic full-back Alistair Johnston has acknowledged he may have been fortunate to avoid a red card during his side’s 3-1 derby victory over the Ibrox club…
The visitors made a bright start after Mikey Moore fired them ahead early in the contest, but the winger was later on the receiving end of a heavy challenge from Johnston.
The Canadian international escaped with a yellow card, and following VAR having a look at it, the decision remained unchanged.
Celtic capitalised on keeping 11 men on the pitch as they turned the game around to secure a vital victory, with Johnston later admitting the outcome could have been different had he been dismissed.
Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s title-decider against Hearts, the 27-year-old accepted there was an element of luck involved in the decision.
He said via Celtic’s official YouTube channel: “As a defender now, you got to be so smart with every tackle you put in. Was I a little bit lucky? Yeah, probably.
“When you slow it down, again, I’m going to win the ball. Of course, you’re going to take the man, you want to get the man as well. But am I intending to injure? No. Just trying to put a hard tackle in as every single fan of both sides of that rivalry would they want their defenders to do it.
“And yeah, I caught him. I thought in the moment I caught him on the top of the foot. I wasn’t 100% sure what the VAR was going to look like. Turns out it sounded like they didn’t have the replay that might have been a bit more conclusive that I should have been sent off. This and that, it is what it is.”
Alistair Johnston also admitted modern football has changed how tackles are judged by officials.
“I thought in the moment yellow card was probably fair. If it was 10 years ago I would have said ‘how is that even a foul?’ But that’s just the day and age now,” he added.
“Yeah, at the end of the day, am I lucky I didn’t get sent off? Probably, but it’s football. You want to make hard tackles. I’m glad that I stayed on the pitch and we managed to win that match.”
Conor Spence
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