Offside goals, unpunished fouls, handballs and objects thrown

This is a placeholder entry which will be expanded upon, relating to the double header Old Firm games at Celtic park in April 2008.

Scott McDonald's goal which was offside



Vennegoor of Hesselink assault on Amdy Faye;



Vennegoor of Hesselink has a dangerous challenge on Allan McGregor go unpunished;



Scott McDonald awarded a penalty for an incident which occurred outside the box as seen below;



There were further incidents in these matches, including Paul Hartley escaping without punishment for a studs up wild challenge on Lee McCulloch that broke bones in his foot, Paul Hartley taking Barry Ferguson out the game by targetting an already injured ankle, Gary Caldwell handling the ball twice in his penalty box without a foul being given and Barry Robson with a first minute elbow on Christian Dailly. Nacho Novo also had a mobile phone thrown at him by a Celtic supporter and the Rangers club doctor was hit by a coin as he treated an injured player. Celtic escaped any punishment for both incidents, and the culprits have not been found nor banned from Celtic park.

A controversial winner for Celtic against Falkirk

Celtics 0-1 win at Falkirk on the 27th January 2008, when Scott McDonald scored from an offside winner.

As the screen capture above shows, linesman Brian McGarry can be seen in line with McDonald and the six yard box as Nakamura puts the ball over, with McDonald and another Celtic players clearly offside.

In the same match, which Falkirk dominated for the entire 90mins, Falkirk were denied 3 penalties of which 2 were stonewallers. McManus also escaped punishment completely, after breaking the leg of Dean Holden in a reckless and aggressive challenge.

From the BBC match report

Scott McDonald's goal gave Celtic a fortunate and controversial win over Falkirk that narrows the gap on SPL leaders Rangers to four points.

The home side had two strong claims for a penalty turned down.

...

lucky not to have McDonald's headed 45th-minute goal ruled offside.

...

[Falkirk] had claims for a penalty denied by referee John Underhill when a Holden cross struck the hand of Gary Caldwell.

...

[Falkirk] again had strong claims for a penalty denied when McBride was challenged from behind by Massimo Donati after 72 minutes.

Date: Sunday 27 January 2008

Referee: John Underhill.

Assistant for offside decision: Brian McGarry.