The Northern Irishman, whose St Johnstone side host Celtic in midweek, texted his friend and countryman Neil Lennon to commiserate after their 3-0 Champions League last-16 defeat.

He insists the Italian side's tactics of grappling with Hooper and others at corners do not fall within the laws of the game and, like Lennon, pointed the finger of blame at referee Alberto Mallenco for letting it continue unpunished.

"I texted him just to say, 'what can you do as a manager when that happens?," Lomas said.

"I don't think there was anything cute about what they did. The disappointing thing is that before this season Fifa said they were looking very closely at how players are marking in the box. That directive obviously hasn't worked.

"There is a difference between feeling where a player is, so you can feel if he is pulling away or looking to move across you, or if you could block him off.

"I think that is acceptable. But what I don't think is acceptable is two hands around a player, effectively stopping somebody moving. I think that is poor defending. If you are not looking at the ball, what happens if it hits you on the back of the head? That is lazy defending, but what I couldn't understand was that the referee warned a couple, but they just did it again.

"As a manager you want your players to be physical and touch tight, but what you don't want is for them to run the risk and for me the referee was at fault. He saw it, warned about it, then he let it go on again.

"You would be fuming if one of your players gave away a penalty doing that. I know what they are doing and there is a degree of professionalism stopping someone getting a run but it wasn't within the laws of the game, in my opinion."

As for the football itself, Lomas was impressed by Celtic's performance, and knows he will have his work cut out to keep the side's unbeaten record in league matches against the Parkhead side this season.

"Barring a couple of individual errors and lapses of concentration, I thought they had Juventus every step of the way," said Lomas. "After it ended 3-0, Lenny must be studying the video and asking, 'how did that happen?'.

"We are unbeaten in league matches against them, but they gave us a doing in the cup. Whenever you play Celtic you have to be at your maximum, fully concentrated and you need to take your chances. A bit like Celtic probably had to be with Juventus."