Celtic awarded controversial penalty to defeat St Mirren

When Will Haining and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink contested a floated, high pass from Lee Naylor, Hesselink was offside. As play moved on, Vennegoor of Hesselink raised his arm to hold back Hain and, on the edge of the penalty box, contact was made. Referee Eddie Smith had an unobstructed view. As the challenge developed Hesselink manoeuvred himself in front of Haining and hit a shot that slid wide as Hesselink fell to ground. There was not even an appeal from the Dutchman for a penalty, but Eddie Smith thought different and pointed to the spot and went on to show Haining a red card.

As the photograph below shows Haining was not holding or pulling on Hesselink to illegally impede his shot.


An animated gif of part of the incident can be seen below.
Unfortunately the video which goes into more cannot be posted due to it being removed from youtube for copyright violations. Copyright violations which have not been applied to footage showing a clip of the penalty being scored!

Click on the photograph below to see referee looking happy with his decision.


After the game, St Mirren manager Gus McPherson, was to accuse referee Eddie Smith of having winked at him following the decision stating: "The referee was winking at me. He would need to explain why, I don't know whether he was trying to irritate me or not, I don't know. But he'll deny it. It's so, so difficult to say what you really feel. We've seen it go on a number of times now and you've just got to bite your tongue."

Referee Eddie Smith had previously been involved in a controversial decision in a St Mirren v Celtic match earlier in the year when he had awarded Nakamura a freekick for a dive on the edge of the box, which the Japanese international subsequently scored from.

From the BBC report:

Celtic got their defence of the Scottish Premier League title off to a winning start thanks to a controversial Barry Robson penalty against St Mirren.

...

[Vennegoor of Hesselink] poked the ball wide of the post under pressure from Haining.

Referee Smith decided that the striker had been tugged from behind by the defender, who was shown a red card, although television pictures suggested that Vennegoor of Hesselink had been doing his own share of holding.

Date: Sunday 10 August 2008

Referee: Eddie Smith