Martin O’Neill voiced his frustration over officiating and VAR during Celtic’s 2-1 victory over Hibernian last weekend.
Reflecting on the Easter Road encounter, the Celtic manager admitted his side had to battle through several “difficulties” before securing all three points.
O’Neill specifically highlighted the incident surrounding Daizen Maeda’s opener, which was initially ruled out after linesman Douglas Ross raised his flag for offside before VAR overturned the decision.
Ross was ‘four yards off the pace’
Discussing the moment, O’Neill claimed the now former Conservative MSP had been “four yards off the pace” when making the original call.
When asked about whether Celtic are peaking at the right time, O’Neill responded via Celtic’s official YouTube channel: “I think the games we have had have been difficult.
“We got over the line. We had our difficulties last week. We had a problem with VAR, we had a problem with a few decisions, particularly the first goal that we got.
“The linesman was about four yards off the pace of the game but still wanted to flag for an offside.”
O’Neill also argued that Celtic were denied a clear spot-kick after Benjamin Nygren appeared to be shoved inside the penalty area.
“I don’t know how he saw that but… And, of course, we should have had a penalty.”
When asked if the derby games are different now compared to his first spell in charge at the Hoops, O’Neill said: “I’ve always been an advocate, and it’s probably not going to happen for a long, long time again, after the debacle at Ibrox, but I’ve been for the full allocation of fans, both at Ibrox and at Celtic Park.
“And I think that that makes for a fantastic game, fantastic atmosphere. Football’s maybe not always the best, but it’s been really hectic.
“And I think that part of it, and certainly some of the games that I’ve seen, not as manager here, I thought they’d lost a wee bit of this atmosphere, but outside that, but back in goal for a while, different again.”
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