John Collins wants Celtic to forget about the Scottish Cup semi-final defeat on Sunday and restore the feel good factor at the Champions by beating Dundee at Dens Park this evening.
Celtic’s treble dreams came unstuck against Inverness at Hampden Park on Sunday when they lost 3-2 after extra-time – a result that came about due to the worst refereeing performance of the season by Steven McLean, who should never be trusted with another top flight match again.
Celtic’s anger centres on referee Steven McLean’s failure to award a blatant penalty against Josh Meekings who handed the ball to prevent Leigh Griffiths putting Celtic two up just before half time.
Celtic released a statement on Monday revealing they were “seeking an understanding” of the failure to penalise Josh Meekings, who was subsequently served with a Scottish FA notice of complaint.
Inverness have said that they will “vigorously defend” the player and appeal against the decision to ban the defender for Scottish Cup final against Falkirk on 30th May. It is hard to see what defence they can put forward as Inverness manager John Hughes has already admitted that it should have been a penalty – and thus a red card – and the player himself has admitted that it was handball.
Many Celtic supporters will have some sympathy for the player as they feel he is being used as a scapegoat to hide the sins of the six match officials – who apparently all have told the SFA that they missed the incident. Video and photographic evidence suggests otherwise and just about everyone else in the stadium on Sunday saw the clear and obvious handball.
Celtic’s assistant manager John Collins says that Celtic just want “a simple answer,”on what happened on Sunday and how the officials could get things so badly wrong.
In the meantime however he wants Celtic to stretch their lead at the top of the table over Aberdeen to eight points with five games remaining by beating an inform Dundee side this evening on Tayside.
“You’ve got to move on and in this business it’s all about the next game, training session and performance,” Collins said.
“There are always disappointments and the making of the player and the man is how they react.
“We have a big game against Dundee and we are looking for the boys to bounce back.
“No one can feel sorry for themselves. We are still in a good position and are still having a good season.
“The main focus every season is to win the title and we want to win the title as soon as possible.
‘The first thing I have to say is we congratulate Inverness and John Hughes, they have done a fantastic job and we wish them all the best in the final.
“We are just looking for an answer but trust me, we have moved on.”
