PATRICK ROBERTS is adamant Andy Halliday’s astonishing escape from a red card should give Scott Brown hope of playing at Ibrox on Saturday.
The Sevco Rangers midfielder astonishingly was only booked by referee Willie Collum for a wild lunge on the winger during Celtic’s 2-0 Scottish Cup semi-final victory at Hampden on Sunday.
And Roberts could see little difference between that challenge and the one which Brown was involved in with Ross County’s Liam Boyce in Dingwall that resulted in a straight red from ropey ref Don Robertson.
The appeal against the Hoops skipper’s dismissal will be heard by an SFA Judicial Panel on Thursday.
If it fails, the 31-year-old international star will be banned for this weekend’s Premiership meeting at Ibrox and the subsequent home game against St Johnstone.
Roberts said: “I have looked back at the Andy Halliday tackle. Broony did that against Ross County and he got sent off.
“Does it give me hope he will win his appeal? Yeah. If that’s only a yellow, why was Scott’s a red card?
“I don’t want to say too much, but it was a bad tackle and, thankfully, I didn’t get hurt.
“It’s a Xxx Xxxx game and maybe the ref thought about it like that and gave a yellow. I felt the ref was pretty good and, thankfully, we won the game.”
Meanwhile, Roberts remains uncertain about whether he will be able to feature in the Scottish Cup Final against Aberdeen on May 27.
The on-loan Manchester City winger is wanted by the English FA for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in South Korea, which starts on May 20.
Celtic could seek to negotiate his release for a Hampden farewell at the end of an 18-month loan stay at the champions, but Roberts admitted the decision is out of his hands.
He added: “I can’t really say too much about that at the moment. We’ll just have to see.”
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