Ryan Jack’s first booking was too harsh, claims Craig Brown

ABERDEEN manager Craig Brown last night claimed referee Stevie O’Reilly was unduly uncompromising with his decision to caution Ryan Jack for excessive celebration of his goal at Celtic Park.

Jack was shown the yellow card for rushing towards the Aberdeen fans with his team-mates after his fine individual goal had pulled the visitors level at 1-1 with Celtic after 59 minutes of a grimly contested match.

Celtic hit back to take all three points through Charlie Mulgrew’s goal with Aberdeen’s hopes of a further recovery hampered when Jack was sent off for a second bookable offence with ten minutes remaining.

Veteran manager Brown had no complaints with Jack’s second caution, for a foul on Celtic striker Gary Hooper, but was unhappy at the earlier decision.

“The first booking for over-celebrating his goal was harsh,” said Brown. “A word in his ear might have done it. The fourth official, Stephen Finnie, told me that Ryan had been warned by the referee not to go off the pitch. Ryan said he didn’t hear it. But he was still on the grass, it wasn’t as if he ran far off. It was harsh to be cautioned for that.

“We feel a little aggrieved about it but I never criticise officials. I’m not blaming the ordering off for us losing the game. But it left us with a mountain to climb in the closing stages against a team who are fighting to stay in contention for the title. Credit to Neil Lennon and his team, they eked out a victory.”

Aberdeen remain in the bottom half of the SPL table but Brown took encouragement from a competitive display which he felt merited at least a point.

“I do think we deserved to take something from the game,” he added. “When we equalised, we had an opportunity to win it and a good opportunity not to lose it.

“Credit to Celtic, they upped their game and their substitutions were good for them. But we are going up the road disappointed, feeling we could be taking something away from the game.

“The second goal we conceded was soft, in fact both goals were soft from out point of view. Even when we were 1-0 down at half-time, I felt we had a chance to get something. But when you go down to ten men, you are psychologically disadvantaged as well as physically disadvantaged.

“Both at Ibrox and Celtic Park this season, we have played well. We probably played even better when we lost to Rangers at Ibrox earlier in the season. There has been very little between the teams in either fixture.”