Ralston States Penalty Dispute Has Not Diminished Celtic’s Cup Triumph

“Buzzing” Anthony Ralston asserts that the penalty controversy, ongoing since Sunday, has not cast “any dampener” on Celtic’s League Cup joy. Willie Collum, the Scottish FA’s head of referees, has labeled the “really poor” decision to withhold an extra-time spot-kick from Rangers as an “unacceptable” error by the VAR officials. Defender Liam Scales committed a foul on Vaclav Cerny near Celtic’s box when the teams were tied 3-3 at Hampden. Referee John Beaton signaled a foul, despite replays demonstrating the infringement was within the area, and Celtic ultimately secured a 5-4 win on penalties. Defender Ralston commented: “I don’t feel it has put any sort of dampener on our success. We’re all buzzing, we’re all extremely happy with the outcome of the game. We got our hands on the trophy and that’s all we really care about to be honest, everything else is not something that we’re going to overly pay attention to. It’s not obviously our place to do that. From my point of view, I didn’t really look too much into it after the game. There was an on-field decision made at the time, which isn’t down to us to make as players. There wasn’t much said about it until after the game, when ultimately we’d won. So it’s part and parcel of football. And, I can speak on behalf of the other lads, we don’t take much to do with it. Let the officials do that side of it.” With this victory, Celtic’s total trophy count reached 119, placing them one ahead of Rangers. Ralston remarked: “It’s an important point in our history and as a club and we’re delighted to be able to deliver that to the fans all around the world. It’s a special thing. It’s another marker for us as a group of players and we want to keep delivering success, and that’s what drives us every day to do that.”