RONNY DEILA, the Celtic manager, accused Dundee United's Ryan McGowan of a career-threatening "stupid" tackle on Liam Henderson as the teams' William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final replay boiled over in an explosive final few minutes.
Celtic will now meet Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the semi-final next month after goals from Jason Denayer, Leigh Griffiths, Kris Commons and Virgil van Dijk sealed a 4-0 victory. The win, though, was overshadowed by the events at the end of the game when Anthony Stokes was sent off for a retaliatory kick at United's Paul Paton, before McGowan was also dismissed for a challenge on substitute Henderson that sparked a mass rammy near the corner flag. Six players have now been sent off in the three matches between the sides over the past 11 days. The teams meet again at Celtic Park in the SPFL Premiership on Saturday.
Deila, who praised his team's performance, was particularly unhappy with the heavy challenge on teenager Henderson. "It was a red card, a stupid tackle on the sidelines," said the Norwegian. "We need to get these things out of football. It was a youngster trying a little trick in the corner. You could have stayed there and kept him out wide instead of going in with both feet. He could have injured him for life. At 4-0 it must have been frustration.
"It was a straight forward win in the end but there were some angry and disappointed players out there. It got a bit tense at the end but that can happen. These have been important games for both teams and sometimes it can get a bit tense. Today we were the better team, like we were on Sunday, and they had some frustration. We need to handle that and get ready for the next game."
Simon Donnelly, the United assistant manager, revealed he had not seen the incident again but wondered aloud whether it had been any worse than Scott Brown's challenge on Nadir Ciftci in the original tie that went unpunished.
'I'd need to see it again as I've only seen it at game time," said the former Celtic player. "On seeing it at the time I thought it was a strong, fair challenge but I might be wrong. The Celtic reaction on the back of their player being sent off maybe influences the referee but I'll need to look at it again. Is it any worse or any different to Scott Brown's two weeks ago?"
There was contention over Stokes' red card, with the Irishman contending on the pitch and then again on Twitter that he had been elbowed by Paton, "someone that has nothing about them".
Deila added: "I spoke to Stokes. His mouth was bleeding after a challenge from Paton and he reacted. We have to see it again if it is a red card."
There will likely be sparks flying again on Saturday when the teams meet again, as Griffiths alluded to. "That's six red cards in three games now and if I was a betting man then I would be putting money on another sending off this Saturday," said the striker.
"It is just one of those things and the Dundee United players are getting a bit frustrated and we move on to Saturday and hopefully we can pick up another three points. I don't think there is niggle between both sets of players I just think Dundee United are sick of the sight of Celtic."
Griffiths praised Scott Brown for creating his goal. "He came running over to me and said "I bet you did not expect that" and to be fair I didn't think he had that in his locker," he laughed.
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