As the SFA placed Josh Meekings on a charge that threatens his chance of playing in the Scottish Cup final Celtic's assistant manager John Collins yesterday supported the view that match officials also have a case to answer for failing to deal with the crucial incident in Sunday's semi-final when the Inverness Caledonian Thistle defender handled the ball.

The "notice of complaint" against the defender can be interpreted as justifying the outpouring of emotion that has followed Sunday's victory by the team from the Highlands but does not address the question of the culpability of the referee and his assistants which, in effect, prompted Celtic to write to the SFA seeking "clarification" on Monday.

Since there seems no doubt that the wrong decision was made that missive can only be seen as raising questions over the competence of how a group of officials came to make such an error and/or whether there was any doubt over their motivation.

Deputising for Ronny Deila, the club manager, at yesterday's press conference Collins was offered the chance to dismiss such suspicion which so often fuels controversy within Scottish football but turned it down.

"The only person you can ask the question to is the referee and the officials. I can't answer that question," he said.

"I saw that it was a handball and once everyone's seen it on television it is a blatant handball. The referee has either never seen or it or his linesman's never seen it and the guy behind the goal's never seen it. You've got to ask that question, haven't you."

Pressed to clarify what he meant by that Collins continued: "I'm not saying there is suspicion but it's a decision that should have been given... a decision that should have been given."

He said Celtic's football management had not been involved in the decision to write to the SFA, which the club had justified on the basis of the scale of the outrage registered, but made clear his support of it

"I think like everyone who watched the game they would like an answer," said the man who famously prevented a goal against Holland at Euro '96 in similar fashion.

If Collins chose his words carefully another former Celtic player Chris Sutton was much less circumspect when, speaking at the launch of ex-teammate John Hartson Foundation's new testicular cancer awareness campaign, he called the competence rather than the integrity of the officials into doubt.

"I don't understand really what the officials [behind the goal] - whatever they are called - have done or if they have ever made a decision. It's alright to say he is unsighted, but he can't miss that," he said.

"Maybe he needs to go on a course where someone throws a ball from the side and it hits an arm and you can ask him what happened. The referee should have seen it too, I went home and watched it and he had a good view of it.

"It was just idiotic... It wasn't a conspiracy, I just can't remember a decision that bad from someone standing so close. There is no way he could have thought that ball hit the player on the head, he must be an idiot not to see it. It's just ridiculous. It's his one job to assist the referee."

Sutton added: "I do think he should be punished in some respect. He wasn't up to the job and it wasn't a difficult one.

"There should be accountability. That's the one thing whatever way you look at it. If we were all in that position we wouldn't have missed it so you have to question what on earth he was looking at."

However he also said he believes Celtic are wasting their time in asking for further explanation.

"The SFA will write back and just say he didn't see it. You know what's going to happen and it's a waste of a stamp," he said.

"I think it's just possibly to show their frustration and I can totally understand that. I don't play for them anymore but if you are that close to winning a treble for the fourth time in their history and Ronny Deila being only the third manager to do it, it's a big, big thing."

Hartson echoed that sentiment, saying: "I can't fathom out what Celtic are going to gain by writing a letter to the SFA... you dust yourself down and get on with it. Unless you're going to bring the referee's honesty into account which is a big call, then I don't know what purpose writing a letter is going to serve because it's happened in the past and will happen again."

Meekings has been offered a one match ban in the same competition should he accept the charge issued by the governing body's compliance officer under its disciplinary rule 200, that he denied Celtic a clear-cut scoring opportunity by deliberately handling the ball, be upheld, as seems the likeliest outcome. He has until 3pm today to respond.