Jimmy Crease: It was a stonewall penalty

Published on Sunday 9 January 2011 20:17

BERWICK Rangers manager Jimmy Crease claims his side were denied a penalty in the opening minutes of yesterday's fourth-round tie when Steven Notman went to ground under pressure from Charlie Mulgrew and Thomas Rogne.

But he admits Celtic would probably have come out on top even if his side had taken an early lead, despite having no complaints about his own players' efforts.

Crease, pictured, said: "We've put in a decent performance. We are disappointed to get beat as you would be as a football man, whether it's against Celtic or anyone else. We've got to take the positives out of the game, I thought we equipped ourselves well and our discipline was good. I thought my players handled the occasion well.

"We had a great call for a penalty kick after two minutes, we think it was a stonewaller. These things happen and referees get things wrong and I thought the officials were excellent.

"It would have given us a confidence booster but, in saying that, Celtic were comfortable with their win and I always felt that, if we had scored, they could maybe have went up the park and scored themselves."