Howard Webb defends Craig Thomson after Old Firm semi-final

Howard Webb has defended the performance of Craig Thomson after the Scottish whistler made a couple of contentious decisions in the Old Firm semi-final at Hampden.

Craig Thomson shows a yellow card to Barrie McKay after believing the Rangers winger to have dived for a penalty. Picture: PA

Click here for the latest results, fixtures and stats>>>

Celtic dominated the match for long periods and finally earned their place in the Betfred Cup final thanks to a 87th minute strike from Moussa Dembele.

The pre-match favourites were unhappy they didn’t take the lead sooner when Erik Sviatchenko sent a header past Rangers goalkeeper Matt Gilks, only to see the effort disallowed for a foul on Clint Hill.

Replays appeared to show the challenge was six of one, half a dozen of the other, with the BT Sport commentary team in agreement that the goal was wrongly ruled out. Earlier in the match, Rangers thought they’d been awarded a penalty, only for the referee to book Barrie McKay for diving.

While he believed Thomson got it wrong, Webb - who once took charge of a World Cup final and now works for BT Sport as a referee correspondent - defended Thomson’s decision to blow for a foul while Sviatchenko headed home.

He said: “I love listening to these commentators and people who cast judgement. Craig’s got one view.

“It’s all about angles. It’s a crowded penalty area. There’s a bit of contact. Clint Hill probably, what we would call, ‘old mans’ Craig Thomson by going down easily, throwing himself a little bit. But, you know, at full speed I can totally see why Craig has disallowed it.

“Do I think he should have given a goal? Yes I do, but I’ve got the benefit of sitting here watching replays.”

As for the referee’s overall performance, Webb praised Thomson for how he handled the red-hot intensity of an Old Firm derby at Hampden.

He said: “Overall, Craig did ok. He kept his cards in his pocket - we had four in the end but three came late on.

“He got the penalty shout early on right. That was the important thing, to get that right. I thought the yellow card for simulation was a little bit on the harsh side, but he got the penalty call right.

“Overall, nobody is really talking about him. He got a bit lucky that Celtic scored so late.”

Keep up to date with all our sport news on The Scotsman’s Sport page on Facebook


DOWNLOAD THE SCOTSMAN APP ON ITUNES OR GOOGLE PLAY