The life experiences you enjoy as Celtic supporters are rare and privileged. For the second game in succession, a formidable opponent took the lead against us and could have ended our title hopes. On Sunday we were elevated to an incredible height. That seemed impossible to top, then there was last night!
Credit to Motherwell. Yet again, Jens Berthel Askou provided evidence of his outstanding ability as a coach. Celtic were pinned back during the opening exchanges until Watt’s shot from outside the area was deflected past Viljami Sinisalo to give the home side the lead.
At that moment, a mountain stood before Celtic. Motherwell were clipping passes into space, dragging defenders out of position and permanently dangerous. Had the score stayed the same until the break, things may have turned out differently, but Daizen Maeda’s goal on 41 minutes rewarded Celtic for the sheer energy they spilled trying to get back into the game.
Arne Engels came close to giving Celtic a halftime lead when his lob rebounded off the crossbar. At that moment, Celtic fans expected the referee or VAR to step in and award a penalty for the foul on Maeda when ‘keeper Ward flattened the Celtic striker when he came well off his line to contest a ball.
Benjamin Nygren has staged a one man league title campaign for much of this season and his goal typified all we have seen from him. He cut inside before releasing a reverse pass for Engels to run onto inside the box (this is clearly a coached move as Luke McCowan played the same ball to Engels on Sunday). Nygren then moved into space, making himself available for a shot, if the ball came back to him, which it did via Yang.
The shot was technically excellent. From 24 yards, players usually blast a shot. Benji had around 12 inches to pass the ball between the defender who blindsided his keeper and the near post. That was enough to send a size 5 to the top corner.
As the goal happened, Martin O’Neill was preparing Kelechi Iheanacho and Reo Hatate to make their entrance, but delayed the decision when Celtic took the lead. For a period, Celtic remained relentless, but the goal which their play deserved did not materialise. Callum McGregor was outstanding, for periods, unplayable. Motherwell simply could not stop him setting up attacks or evade him when trying to get forward themselves.
When the changes eventually came, they did not benefit Celtic. Across 8 minutes Celtic hooked Alistair Johnston, Kieran Tierney, Yang, Tounekti and Nygren. The fresh legs were not enough to contain Motherwell, who pressed for the equaliser which they deservedly got with 5 minutes of normal time remaining.
Prior to this, the home side saw a deflected shot rebound off the crossbar, while Sinisalo saved excellently low to his right – his best save as a Celtic player so far.
For the remaining 5 minutes of regulation time, and all but the last kick of the game of the 5 minute added time, Motherwell looked more likely to score than Celtic, and hand Hearts the title. The Edinburgh side’s players remained on the field at Tynecastle, just in case this was their moment.
What happened instead is a tale that will be told whenever the history of Celtic is mentioned. How glad were you when Kelechi picked up the ball? I feel quite animated about the penalty. There will be a second blog out later this afternoon on this subject. For now, let’s just congratulate the players and enjoy that extra level of elation.
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The dogs bark but the caravan moves on
That was a nice relaxing 90 minutes.
Its nice to be reminded every now and then that the knives are always out……………..
Get it right up the hysterical hun hordes. Hand ball, end of.
What’s a mere second article in a day on the subject of the penalty , when the entire world’s media has devoted every word , full stop and comma to this heinous outrage since the moment Beaton pointed to the spot .
I assume Paul67 the second blog will be about the penalty for a hand ball (given) or the foul on Trusty, not checked as the hand ball was clear as well as the first half penalty not given, mentioned in this blog and the reaction from McInnes, expected and the reaction from BBC Scotland, Sky Sports pundits, who to a man were pathetic, again expected!
Paul67 wrote an article on VAR, when it was introduced, it bypassed history and relied on the Corinthian Celtic spirit of fairness.
VAR would be a good thing for Celtic he said, and it is generally a good thing for Celtic, anything that can make John Beaton and Andrew Dallas appear semi neutral is a good thing?
The ‘media coverage’ is a totally different thing in Scotland we have Andrew Dickson ex Rainjurz running Sky Sports coverage and the editor of the national broadcaster Richard Wilson ex Rainjurz. The Celtic board ( bless them ) appreciate that there is no media, that is media, Latin for ‘middle ground’.
One game at a time CSC
When Scalesy had the ball at the pen , it was a scarey few moments
HH
Callum McGregor was not outstanding
Absolutely HUGE winner from Iheanacho (credit to whoever signed him). Winning it on goal difference was always a long shot, with Hearts always likely to beat Falkirk by a comfortable margin. Forget Albert Kidd – we’d have needed Billy The Kid, The Cincinnati Kid, The Karate Kid and maybe even The Milky Bar Kid.
Loving the total meltdown at the BBC – just waiting for them to claim that the ball didn’t hit his hand because it was repelled by a force field!
Some strike from Nygren btw – top quality goal, a bit overshadowed by all that followed. Onto Saturday….
I thought it was a foul on Trusty, the elbow to the head. A free kick every day.
When it went to VAR I thought they’d KB it. No way would they give that at this stage of the season, especially the Dallas and Beaton combo. Then they called the ref over to the monitor and talk switched to handball.
The SFA will get it in the neck for a month of Sundays unless there’s an additional camera angle that gives a better steer. It’s perfect ‘Old Firm’ conspiracy territory.
To my mind it probably was a handball but the elbow foul is more obvious and had they confirmed that as the basis for the decision there would be less disquiet abroad today.
Still, here we are, having taken every match one at a time and won all of them, the final hurdle approaches.
A win on Saturday and we’re Champions Again.
NeverBeatonCSC
The Sky monkeys and McCoist going with the ‘clear and obvious ‘ line,it’s not his hand is in an unnatural position,and made contact with the ball first, the hysteria on Sky and Talkshite is off the scale
It’s Masons moaning that their Brothers betrayed them
EKBhoy on 14th May 2026 12:20 pm
Pandemonium broke out in this house 😂
Mind you, this is fairly conclusive evidence:
https://tinyurl.com/Handball-Image-1
https://tinyurl.com/Handball-Zoom
With all the hysterical accusations of cheating and “there’s only one team going to be allowed to win this league” (or similar), I hope that the and accusations are not being aimed at Celtic or any of their employees or fans.
Ultimately the on field and VAR decisions are nothing to do with Celtic, they are made by impartial officials. All the Celtic players can do is play the game as it unfolds in front of them. So, just as Celtic had to accept a very harsh red card decision that cost them a win against Hearts in January (and a 3 point swing in Hearts’ favour), their players are equally entitled to accept the fortunate award of a soft penalty last night to record a late win in a crucial fixture. It’s all swings and roundabouts, the rough and the smooth, some go on your favour, some don’t, and you just have to get on with it and play the hand that you’re dealt.
If they want to see a truly bizarre and unjust penalty award then there was the one 2 or 3 years ago where the ball was played across the Celtic area (possibly from a corner) and reflected upwards. A couple of Celtic players jumped to head the ball clear as it dropped, but an opposing player (I can’t remember the opposition team) pushed one of the Celtic players forward causing him to miss the header, with the ball dropping just behind him as a result of the push in his back (which actually should have been penalised as a foul).
That push and resultant forward movement also caused the Celtic player’s arm to swing backwards, and as the ball fell behind him it struck his arm behind his back. The Celtic player didn’t know where the ball was and made no deliberate movement of his arm towards the ball, with any arm movement being entirely natural due to the push in his back.
Alas the penalty was awarded against the Celtic player and duly scored. Maybe someone can remember the match and the Celtic player that was penalised (Oh, perhaps?).
And let’s not forget the Scottish Cup Semi Final v ICT in 2015…
https://youtu.be/egZJDmKafpo?si=SHaQvTu5PG5VmoBT
My hope now with all the incandescent fury that is flying around in the media, is that Celtic win by 3 goals on Saturday to render the penalty goal last night irrelevant. Had it finished all square at Fir Park last night Celtic would now be 3 points behind Hearts and would need that 3 goal win to pull back the GD deficit. So let’s beat them by 3 to make a statement that we are justified Champions regardless of refereeing and VAR decisions.
BADA BING
totally agree that talksport etc all talking sh1te.
Someone should ask so Maradonna goal was good ???
Yet again, Jens Berthel Askou provided evidence of his outstanding ability as a coach.
————-
how ?
his team got beat, for the 6th time in 8 matches.
overhyped. let him go to hearts, or some other up and coming club, he can excel or fail elsewhere but he has no time to get it right at celtic.
btw, his light-weight nice ball players, they wouldnt be allowed any time on the ball if playing for celtic,
i watched it all again this morning, I wouldnt take any , what happened to masiniswe ? anonymous.
PAUL67
knowing you have contacts as Celtic park would it be too much to ask if you can get TAVS the send off
he missed out on at Ibrox last night.
Give the fans the chance to show appreciation of his contribution to
Scottish football.
Sevco renouned for finishing second, spend countless millions and finish third.
As I said last night, the idea of a conspiracy between Beaton and Dallas to benefit Celtic is beyond preposterous.
Wilfried Nancy no longer wanted by Toulouse, as he told them
he knew French football well because he once nearly signed for
FC Kaiserslautern.
Aff oot CSC
None of us should be surprised at the “outrage” of the media and their lackeys at the penalty award last night. However Boyd and McInness surpassed themselves with their meltdowns. Hardly a word on the penalty we should have had when Daizen was ploughed down by the goalkeeper but that doesn’t suit the narrative.
Celtic. Go out and put 3 or more past them on Saturday and sicken them even more….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9glU7GFWAc
unique angle, do the frame by frame and it nails it as a handball and therefor a penalty.
In previous seasons, when we lost away to the likes of Motherwell, you’d usually find it was a tale of bad finishing, superb goalkeeping and the woodwork being busy.
Not so last night – Motherwell deserved to win TBH and their conditioning seemed excellent.
They looked a much better side than the Ibrox mob did on Sunday.
Unique Angle | Motherwell 2-3 Celtic (14/05/26)
https://youtu.be/y9glU7GFWAc
pause on the 1.48
Nicholson over aggressive leaning backwards challenge is very clear to see
He raises his arm you can quite clearly see that Nicholson his raised his arm himself with his hand well above his head
Arm lowers, elbow into the side of Trusty’s face
Hand rests on forehead as he attempts to head the ball
The overwhelming photographic and video evidence now available would shame the devil
Hate to use a daily record link for anything
This is a link to photograph and not an article
https://i2-prod.dailyrecord.co.uk/article37154827.ece/ALTERNATES/s1200f/0_Motherwell-UK-13-May-2026-Motherwells-Sam-Nicholson-was-given-a-controversial-handball-for-this.jpg
As clear a hand ball as you will see
Paul67 pls update the blog so we can embed photos and videos into the comments!!!
“Maradona Handball..Reaction Is Disgusting” Celtic Fan REACTS To Penalty Incident Against Motherwell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MWPMT99mho
Wow, just wow.🇮🇪💚👍
Bigchipsuk
I think that might have been the game against Hearts…same one where Yang was send off for a high boot, where Beaton was only given a still to look at.
BR was given a touchline ban for calling them incompetent…which is Sanskrit for cheats.
Might be wrong though.
The John Beaton Palestine Shamrock CSC are looking for any spares going for Saturday.
Wow, what a night. I had moved on to Saturday, wondering how we score 3 without conceding, and then bang. What a pen by big Ian btw.
Media reaction is wonderful. Tommy Sheridan says it was a penalty. Daily Express in quoting him describe him as ‘Convicted perjurer Sheridan said…’. Oh, the pain.
On FF they have chat going on calling in the police to search for ‘burner phones’ between Lawwell, SFA and Beaton, Someone comments ‘ ‘This chat is catnip for lurkers.’ Indeed it was. I laughed very loudly into my cornflakes. They really are beyond deranged (having been deRangered in 2012).
Ian Murray MP sending his daughter to school in a Hearts kit ‘in protest’. Not sure what the poor child has done to deserve that. This is despite him keeping quiet over Gaza. Priorities Mr Murray. And I assume no Hibs voters in Edinburgh South.
My favourite was Shory Chief Souptaker, English ‘ ‘It was substantially a header’. So what insubstantial part of the defender’s body did it hit? His hand of course. He doesn’t understand that it’s still a penalty if it hits hand and other body parts. What a clown.
Loving this. I hope MON changes the narrative by pointing out Maeda was nearly hospitalised by their keeper.
Think it was Laxalt who had the penalty given against him for the ball hitting his arm when he had missed the ball and it rebounded on to his arm, Dickenson may have been the ref and Hibs the opposition.
Embedding videos / files etc can be tricky as every post would need to be checked / parked until it was anti-virus checked , (and continually updated) to avoid the site crashing / being compromised. Don’t know if this is already available on the servers but either way it would cost , maybe better to just allow posting links.
Onlysayingcfc
Let them moan and nurse a grievance, we have plenty cause, it is now the headline item on Reporting Scotland and no doubt will be raised in both Parliaments, we Wullies KMI panel is going to be busy.
DESSYBHOY on 14TH MAY 2026 1:20 PM
Think it was Laxalt who had the penalty given against him for the ball hitting his arm when he had missed the ball and it rebounded on to his arm, Dickenson may have been the ref and Hibs the opposition.
…..
Not sure if we’re thinking about the same incident, but Bernebaie against Dundee Utd at Parkhead , 1st half at the Celtic end. Remember being totally baffled at the game.
?HH
“Let them scoff and jeer. Celtic will yet win to their proper position by their merits and those who scoff today will one day have to applaud.”
— John Glass