Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell was left “baffled” by the inconsistency of referee Ross Hardie and frustrated over the way he spoke to his players during his side’s 4-0 defeat at Celtic.
Motherwell had Tawanda Maswanhise booked for simulation following a penalty-box clash with Yang Hyun-jun, who then won a penalty at the other end following a collision with Aston Oxborough.
The South Korean winger went down theatrically after getting in front of Oxborough and knocking the ball away as the Motherwell goalkeeper put out his arms to collect a deflected cross.
Arne Engels dispatched the spot-kick to open the scoring in first-half stoppage time.
Motherwell’s chances evaporated in 90 seconds early in the second half.
Tony Watt inadvertently blocked Marvin Kaleta’s header on the goal line before Daizen Maeda headed home from close range at the other end.
Substitutes Nicolas Kuhn and Reo Hatate netted from long range to give Celtic an ultimately comfortable win but Kettlewell was not sure there was much difference between the two first-half incidents.
On Maswanhise’s yellow card, Kettlewell said: “This is where I’m left baffled.
“I don’t think it’s a penalty but it’s not a dive. He has not tried to buy a penalty. He’s running at pace, the Celtic player is touch tight.
“I would say there is some sort of contact there, but not enough for a penalty in my opinion, and the referee instantly books him and regards it simulation. I’m kind of blown away by that, I really am.
“That’s incredibly frustrating because it comes back to this level of consistency in the decisions that we make, that we see that completely different from, for example, the Celtic penalty.
“I struggle to see that there’s a ridiculous amount more contact in either situation.”
On Celtic’s penalty, the Motherwell boss added: “Disappointed on first view and I’ve genuinely not analysed replays of the penalty.
“At the time my gut feeling was that it was soft in terms of how the Celtic player went down from what I felt was minimal to little, if any, contact.”
Motherwell had Dan Casey booked for dissent and Kettlewell added his players were “a wee bit irked with the referee’s demeanour” and how he communicated with them.
“I can be a bit emotional, so can football players, but sometimes you just need to put it on a level and almost not having the mannerisms as if you’re a kid at school to waft you away from situations,” he said.
“Communicate, speak, give players an understanding of what your thought process was and I’m sure they’ll respect you.”
After opening the scoring, Engels set up Celtic’s second goal and boss Brendan Rodgers was again happy with the contribution of the club’s record signing.
“I just think it’s about time with him,” he said. “He’s really enjoying his time here.
“I’ve taken him out for some games just to let him see from the outside looking in and take that pressure away from him because it’s a big move and everything that comes with it.
“But he’s been excellent in training and he’s only going to get better and better.
“When he’s asked to step up in pressure moments he delivers and that was an important penalty for us. His ball in for the corner was absolutely great as well.”
The Celtic boss was delighted to be able to bring on players with the qualify of Kuhn, Hatate and Kyogo Furuhashi in a triple substitution at 2-0 up.
“To keep that intensity in the team is so, so important because you can’t use the same players all the time,” he said.
“I think that’s the difference with this year, I feel I can make those changes without disrupting the way we want to play so much and, most importantly, the intensity of how we want to play.
“The guys go in and do a really good job but we can bring that extra spark and extra spirit into the game which has paid off for us.”
