COLIN KAZIM-RICHARDS was fortunate to escape a red card against Motherwell which could have ruled him out the Old Firm Scottish Cup semi-final, according to the player the Celtic man clashed with at Fir Park.

The former Feyenoord striker squared up to Kieran Kennedy late in the game and appeared to push the defender's face with his hand.

No further action was taken at the time, Ronny Deila substituted Kazim-Richards soon afterwards, and referee Willie Collum did speak to the players which probably means there will be no retrospective decision even if the officials missed the incident.

"I think if the ref had seen it he would probably have been sent off," said Kennedy. "It didn’t bother me. It happens in football. There are tussles and heated games.

“But I think if the ref saw that he clearly grabbed me around the neck. I raised my hands as well. It’s one of them. I saw him push one of the lads, so I came in and everyone was pumped up for the game and going for it.

“The referee said to us; 'Anymore of that and you’re off.' I was thinking 'I haven’t put my hands around his throat'. He clearly didn’t see it because, if he did, he is off.

“It has to be questioned why the linesman hasn’t seen it either.”

Celtic's 2-1 win did not mean Motherwell slipped out of the top six because Saturday's results went for Mark McGhree and his team.

A mistake by the otherwise excellent Motherwell goalkeeper Connor Ripley led to a second goal for Leigh Griffiths and Kennedy felt his team didn't get any luck at all.

He said: "We were gutted to lose. We wanted to confirm our top-six place on our own with a win or a draw.

“We had a look at the goals and you can’t blame Connor Ripley for the winner because he had been the best player on the pitch throughout the whole game.

“But the offside which was given against Scott McDonald (at 1-0 to Celtic), we didn’t think it was and he was not in a position to call it.

“That’s what they get paid for, to give those tough decisions. If you look in the last six months, we’ve not really been getting decisions.

“There was a penalty incident which cost us three points, this one, it’s been week-in, week-out where little things haven’t gone our way. We’ve been on a good run and doing well recently and we’ve stayed in the top six."