Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon has criticised referee Craig Thomson for allowing Ross County’s crucial second goal to stand in yesterday’s League Cup semi-final defeat at Hampden.

With the game poised at one goal apiece, a deep Ross County corner to the back post saw Andrew Davies head the ball back inside for Paul Quinn to nod into the empty Celtic goal. Gordon was conspicuous by his absence as the ball hit the net, but he was adamant after the match that he had been unfairly impeded by Ross County striker Alex Schalk. The goal was allowed to stand despite the goalkeeper’s protestations, which only earned him a yellow card from referee Thomson.

He said: “Schalk has dragged me right towards the front post. It looks as though it’s right off the training ground. You grab the goalie to near post and we’ll deliver the ball to the back. From that point of view, it has worked for them.

“It can’t be allowed. You can’t do that otherwise I’m standing in the right half of the goal and save the second header. If you are allowed to rugby tackle the goalkeeper and play on, then that’s a different game to what I’m used to. It puts us 2-1 down and we’re very annoyed.

“It is absolutely incredible that that has been allowed to stand. Schalk has grabbed me from behind, with two arms round my waist, and dragged me to the front post. Fortunately for Ross County, the officials have either not seen it or ignored it.

“I try to be as calm as possible, and if I ever have to speak to the officials, I try to speak nicely to them. But it was absolutely unforgivable that he didn’t notice that.”

When Gordon was asked what the referee had said to him when he asked for an explanation to the decision, he added: “Nothing. I came rushing out my goal to speak to him. You know if you are rushing out your box to speak to the referee, you are going to get a yellow card. I felt so incensed – and I still am – that he failed to notice the foul on me.”

Gordon felt that Ross County’s second goal was arguably the biggest turning point in the game, despite Efe Ambrose being sent off for fouling Schalk in the area for the Dingwall side’s equaliser. The 'keeper felt that decision went against them too, but conceded that they just weren’t good enough as their treble dream died once again at Hampden.

He said: “We started so well, and to lose that after scoring inside the first minute is terrible. There are an awful lot of things that went against us, and it has ended up that we are out the cup

“[For their penalty] the boy has come through and probably overrun the ball a little bit. He’s actually ended up getting something better than a goal with a sending off, a penalty, a goal and us down to ten men.

“I think he was looking for it and it was clever striking play. That’s what he wanted and he got it. There wasn’t a great deal of contact.

“It’s disappointing. I was talking in the press about how difficult it is to win a Treble and we turn up and get a few decisions against us.

“You could chuck a load of excuses at it. Pitch not great, referee decisions, but we didn’t play well enough to win the match. There are ninety minutes, with a lot of decisions, some for you and some against. But we didn’t cope well enough playing with ten men. We still created chances and if we had taken one or two of them, we could still have made a game of it. But the second goal – to lose that, in that manner, to a foul like that – was hard to take.

“We were already chasing the game with ten men, and we’re a goal down. So that was probably the biggest game-changer – even more so than the penalty.”

Despite the defeat, Gordon says he is still behind his boss, and doesn’t take notice of speculation over his future.

“It has got nothing to do with me,” he said. “I think he is a good manager – I think he’s got a lot of good qualities. I think he is very intelligent. He puts his game-plan – it is up to us to go out and carry that off. But we went down to ten men and we ended up a little bit disjointed, and we didn’t cope with that."