Former referee claims goal in Celtic's win over St Johnstone should have been ruled out

Alex Mitchell scores to make it 1-1 during the match between St Johnstone and Celtic.

Former referee Charlie Richmond believes St Johnstone’s goal in their 2-1 defeat by Celtic should have been ruled out.

Saints defender Alex Mitchell scored in stoppage time to make it 1-1 during Saturday’s cinch Premiership encounter and while Giorgios Giakoumakis went on to net an even later winner for Celtic, Richmond says there was an infringement in the hosts’ strike at McDiarmid Park.

The ex-whistler spotted Saints’ Andy Considine pulling Giakoumakis’ shirt when a cross was delivered into the box and believes had match referee Euan Anderson spotted it, he would have called for a foul.

"He's [Considine] got a hold of his shirt," Richmond said. "It's not a refereeing error because he can't see it. It's really difficult to spot during the general flow of the game.

"But the camera angles will pick that up. The question is whether the holding of the jersey impedes the player from jumping to head the ball away.

"And I think it does. That would be flagged by VAR because there's been an infringement in the scoring of a goal.

"It's a shirt pull and it's led to a goal. Shirt pulling is not part of the game. Players pull shirts because they are caught out or looking for an advantage.”

Richmond continued in a piece with Football Scotland: "It was a foul because it's quite a big jersey pull. It stops the Celtic player from winning the header.

"It's irrelevant if he was going to win the header or not because he's been restricted in his ability to jump."