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00:00Hello and welcome to Glasgow World Fitbit Talk with me Martin Simpson and Lewis Anderson
00:08once again here to discuss all the latest from Celtic and Rangers results at the weekend
00:13and looking ahead to their upcoming fixtures.
00:15We'll start with Celtic Lewis, a fairly convincing win over Motherwell but a match that was certainly
00:22fraught with plenty of flashpoints, what were your take on some of the key instants?
00:26Yeah it was a fairly convincing performance in the end from Celtic, Motherwell did kind
00:31of have their chances at the start of the game, didn't take them and ultimately were
00:35punished for that.
00:37There were a couple of talking points throughout this one, in particular the penalty decision,
00:45the referee David Dickinson's decision to disallow Dyson Maida's goal with Celtic leading
00:521-0 at the time.
00:55Under what looked at first viewing a penalty it was difficult to see from our angle and
01:02the television angle whether or not it was a kind of handball, you couldn't actually
01:07see from the angle of Maida did actually touch the ball in the process of it going into the
01:12back of the net.
01:13Obviously there was a bit of controversy around that, there seemed to be a great deal of confusion
01:19around the players reaction in particular, I think some of the Celtic players were quite
01:23slow to congratulate their team mate after he scored.
01:30I think it's a difficult one, I think there's two sides to this one Martin, I think obviously
01:36the ball clearly does strike his arm so it is technically a handball but you'd also say
01:42that the challenge from Steven O'Donnell, the covering Motherwell defender is pretty
01:48clumsy, he's come in at an angle, he's got his body positioning all wrong and he's clattered
01:55into Maida who has every right to go down in that type of scenario and it was quite
02:04clear that David Dickinson the referee had no idea what to award there.
02:13The VAR side of things took a couple of minutes to clear up as well before the goal was eventually
02:19chalked off.
02:20So what's your understanding on that Lewis, because people do get a bit confused by VAR,
02:24so it couldn't be a penalty because he awarded the goal and VAR can only rule on whether
02:31or not it's a goal, they can't say that is not a goal but it is a penalty, is that basically
02:37how it works?
02:38Yeah that's kind of my understanding of it Martin, for me it's ridiculous, on initial
02:46viewing as I said for me it was a penalty because you see a kind of, it's not as if
02:52he's kind of barged into him but O'Donnell's come in from an angle as I said, he's come
02:58from kind of side on rather than actually came straight in behind him if you like, so
03:05he's got himself tangled up and that's obviously happened before the ball has struck Maida's
03:12arm, it happens just a split second or two before it, so in my opinion it was a penalty
03:18albeit in the end up Celtic went on to win the game fairly comfortably.
03:27And obviously the second real talking point was the sending off of Motherwell defender
03:32Liam Gordon right at the end of the game, it was a fairly rash challenge on Adam Maida,
03:40I think the initial thought from watching on the telly was that he did catch him late,
03:48his studs were showing, it's one of them ones Martin, I think on initial viewing it maybe
03:53doesn't look as bad but then when it's slowed down it's quite clear that he can't have
03:59any complaints there, I think Dickinson obviously booked him initially but it's one of those
04:05ones he's been called over to the monitor and as soon as that happens you know there's
04:09only one way he's going, so I think in that one it was the correct decision, I think he
04:19got the Maida one wrong but yes certainly two real talking points there, I know Brendan
04:26Rodgers spoke a lot about the Ida challenge post-match and he was pretty disgruntled by
04:32it as well, so overall one correct and one that I think needs a clearing up a bit.
04:40Well before we move on let's talk about something positive, other than just a result,
04:45a player for Celtic I've been really impressed with this season has been Luke McEwan, I think
04:51we've seen it time and time again not just with Celtic and Rangers where they sort of
04:54snap up players from other clubs in Scotland and they go on to kind of be bit parts squad
05:00players there and McEwan I think we know Calum MacGregor's not going anywhere, Celtic have
05:05splashed the cash on Arnie Engels, they've also got Rio Hattati and there's also competition
05:10from the likes of Paolo Bernardo and Odin Tiago home but any chance McEwan gets to stake a claim
05:17to a slot he's doing his best to do it and his stats this season have been great, I think
05:23MacGregor's due to miss the next game so I would expect him to start once again and honestly
05:28I wouldn't be too surprised if Stevie Clarke's having a look at him for the Scotland set up.
05:33Yeah I'm kind of surprised, obviously going to Celtic certainly going to enhance his chances
05:39of breaking into the national team, certainly at times last season for Dundee I thought he was
05:45probably one of the arguably one of the best central midfielders in Scottish football and
05:51he's obviously had to bide his time coming to Celtic, I think that was always going to be the
05:54case given the the calibre of player he's come up against but he's been very
06:01impressive in a number of cameo appearances so far, certainly chipped in with a couple of goals
06:06as well and he's a leader as much as he's just a fresh face in the door and obviously
06:14he'll kind of take a bit of time to find his voice being around the likes of MacGregor and
06:18learning off these guys and he was a captain wasn't he at Dundee so he's already got those
06:24kind of qualities and given his chance there on Sunday and certainly took it in my opinion
06:31a lot of Celtic's attack and play came down the right hand side and he was the one
06:36kind of instrumental in dictating a lot of that from the middle of the park so
06:41should definitely get more of a chance going forward, you'd imagine it'll be more
06:48kind of limited in terms of starts to potentially your cup games going forward but you know Cal
06:55MacGregor, yes he's still the kind of key cog in the Celtic midfield but he's not getting any
07:01younger Martin so I think Luke McEwan certainly would be really good
07:08player to kind of fill his boots when MacGregor does eventually hang up. You say he's not getting
07:13any younger but I mean I feel like just because he's been around for so long we feel
07:18like he's older than he is, Calum MacGregor is only 31 years old, he's younger than I am
07:23if Calum MacGregor plays on as long as Scott Brown did then he's got another
07:29what six, seven seasons at Celtic Park he's not going anywhere anytime soon for my money
07:35and obviously his game time will be kind of monitored a lot closely now that he's obviously
07:40taking the decision to kind of withdraw himself from the international scene and given the
07:46amount of games he's already kind of had a couple of niggly issues so far this season so I just think
07:50going forward that McEwan eventually will get kind of phased into the team a bit more and we'll
07:57see what he can really showcase. Well he'll get a chance to showcase himself probably against
08:04his old club this midweek, Celtic against Dundee, you'll think Celtic have got to be heavy favourites
08:10for that, Dundee not in the best form and now they've got to go to Celtic Park but there's absolutely
08:15no doubt whatsoever what the big midweek game is, Rangers are going to Petaudry, Aberdeen
08:21another win against Dundee United, Rangers did beat St Mirren at home but you have to say that
08:26they weren't all that convincing, another day St Mirren could have got something from that game
08:32Yeah I think by all reports they were miles off it again, still a better team
08:38from what I saw from it but I don't expect Rangers to be more dominant than they were
08:45Yeah and given St Mirren were obviously coming off the back of arguably their worst performance
08:49of the season against Hearts the weekend before, you kind of thought on paper that you know Rangers
08:53particularly at home would win this game fairly comfortably and St Mirren did have a couple of
08:58good opportunities in the first half, they had the Ole Ousania goal that was ruled out
09:03and certainly a much improved performance from them and obviously Rangers once again relying
09:08on Vaclav Cerny to kind of come to their rescue in the end, should have been more convincing
09:15they had chances to kind of really kill the game but that's been their Achilles heel a lot of the
09:19time this season when they have been winning positions they haven't been convincing when
09:22they have hit the front and obviously Clement spoke post-match didn't he about the kind of
09:29lack of intensity around their play and obviously going up to Petaudry it's going to be a huge ask
09:35for Rangers on current form, you know Aberdeen are absolutely flying, another win on Saturday
09:41against Dundee United when you know they looked for a long stage that that was going to be a
09:48goalless draw so that they're coming up trumps again and so it's going to be a massive task
09:53and Rangers on that performance yesterday are going to have to certainly up their performance
09:59level that's been a lack of consistency really troubling them this season they can't seem to
10:05string two or three performances together which will be a huge concern and ultimately the need
10:10to win this game don't they it's I know we're still relatively early in the season but you know
10:16in terms of keeping on Celtic and Aberdeen's coattails at the top of the table they can't
10:22afford to be dropping many more points Martin. Where would defeat leave Philippe Clement?
10:31Well obviously the fans are certainly turning against him now aren't they I think and they're
10:37fed up with the kind of excuses he's coming up with and in the press conferences and seems very
10:43set on the formation he kind of refuses to to change that I know he obviously made the big
10:48call at the weekend to drop James Tavernier and bring in Kasson Weardjoe who was arguably one of
10:54Rangers best players but I think you know he's been a year in the door a majority of Rangers
11:02fans will say where's the improvement and I don't think we've seen it based on the squad
11:07they had last season and some of the players they've replaced the likes of Seema bringing in
11:12Cherney I'm not convinced that that's you know an upgrade in my view to some of the players
11:18they had last season so I think certainly question marks will be raised I still think
11:23he'll be given time given that obviously he has just signed this new contract albeit seemed
11:30bizarre timing to me that he was he was handed that but I do think he will stay in a job
11:38for the time being I don't think Rangers in a position at the moment from a financial standpoint
11:43to be getting rid of him at this moment in time.
11:46Well that's all we've got time for thanks very much for Lewis for joining me
11:51we'll be back in the future to discuss more Celtic and Rangers conflict.
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