NEIL LENNON last night lamented "the most appalling refereeing performance I have seen for a long, long time" as Celtic drew with St Mirren in a controversy-strewn game.
Bobby Madden sent off Victor Wanyama, failed to spot a clear hand ball in the box by Georgios Samaras and awarded a penalty for an Esmael Goncalves dive that was launched from outside the box. "You can't get so many big decisions so wrong. It's incredible," said the Celtic manager after a 1-1 draw moved his side 13 points clear at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.
Lennon, who said he would almost certainly tallk with John Fleming, head of referee development, is concerned by the standard of refereeing this season. "I've kept my counsel on it but there have been some really bizarre decisions, not just against my team but in the game generally. They have baffled me," he said.
"Today has been by far the most blatant performance I have seen. It was really poor. St Mirren should have had a penalty. It was a clear handball. You don't get many as clearcut as that, so we dodged a bullet there," he said of the incident when Samaras handled a Teale cross just before half-time with Celtic leading through a Kris Commons header.
"Then I see Biram Kayal getting wrestled into the advertising hoardings in front of the linesman and no free-kick is given. Two seconds later, I've got a man sent off for nothing," he said of the incident when Wanyama kicked Paul McGowan.
He added: "The penalty St Mirren did get was outside the box and there was no contact." This led to Paul McGowan equalising. "I'm delighted we got a point, but there is no doubt the referee's decisions ruined what could have potentially been a very good game. The sending-off is ridiculous and it's changed the game."
Lennon confirmed Celtic will launch an appeal against the red card and that foward Commons was suffering from an ankle ligament injury that caused him to be stretchered off before the break.
Danny Lennon, the manager of St Mirren, was more restrained in his criticism but he believed the officials had endured a "bad day". "I'm led to believe that decision was outside the box," he said of his side's equalising penalty. He admitted, however, that he was angry after the referee penalised Paul Dummett for a foul on Fraser Forster as a Gary Teale cross floated into the net in the first half.
Madden disallowed the "goal", blowing for a foul and Danny Lennon said: "The way I saw it and the way the replay showed it was Emilio Izaguirre who actually pushed our player into the goalkeeper. So for me it's either two things; a penalty to us or it's a goal.
"We can all have bad days. We know the difficult job they have. Once they sit back and watch that I believe they'll pick up one or two things that they can improve on."
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