DAVID DICKINSON, the referee in the middle of a storm at Parkhead on Saturday, will be on VAR duty when Celtic face Motherwell at Fir Park tomorrow night.
The match official sparked outrage in the ninth minute after he had been instructed by his technical assistant Nick Walsh to review an incident concerning a possible handball involving Hoops left-back Alexandro Bernabei.
Dickinson checked the touchline monitor and stunned onlookers by pointing to the spot and booking the Argentinian defender.
FALL GUY…Alexandro Bernabei looks bemused and disappointed as a penalty-kick is awarded to Dundee United.
Steven Fletcher, whose header had hit Bernabei on the elbow, gleefully accepted the gift and drove the ball down the centre of the goal for the equaliser only moments after Sead Haksabanovic had given the hosts the lead with his first goal for the club.
Later in the first-half Dickinson, remarkably, took no action when Giorgos Giakoumakis was floored by a wayward studs-up, chest-high challenge from Craig Sibbald. Walsh, no stranger to controversy when Celtic are around, paused the game to review for a possible red card, but following a two-minute delay, decided there was nothing untoward and no action was taken.
With the game balanced at 2-2 in the fading moments, the points were secured with two strikes from Kyogo Furuhashi and Liel Abada in a 4-2 victory.
Willie Collum will be the man in charge on the pitch against Well. He was the match offical when Ange Postecoglou’s side won 3-0 at Livingston nine days ago.
MOMENT THAT STUNNED CELTIC PARK…referee David Dickisnon is about to point to the penalty spot after checking the VAR monitor.
The visitors were leading 2-0 with goals from Kyogo and Greg Taylor when he awarded the Hoops a VAR-assisted penalty-kick after Andrew Shinnie was adjudged to have handled a left-wing cross from Filipe Jota.
It was in the 83rd minute with the contest virtually over and Giakoumakis squandered the team’s first spot-kick award since April when he nonchalantly rolled it against the outside of the right-hand post.
Jota claimed No.3 in the 87th minute of his comeback game.
Tomorrow will be Collum’s third Celtic game of the season, he also officiated the 4-1 League Cup win over Ross County in Dingwall in August.
He will be joined by assistant referees Dougie Potter and Craig Ferguson with Alan Newlands as the fourth official.
