Quite a bizarre statement to make by the Motherwell manager post-match and, to be honest, I never even noticed this incident last night.
In the lead-up to Celtic’s second goal, Stevie Hammell reckons that the goal shouldn’t have stood due to an infringement by Sead Haksabanovic.
Speaking to the BBC, Hammell moaned, “Yeah, we looked at it back and it was right in front of us. The Celtic player stops us from taking it quickly.
“He’s not even on the pitch.
“He’s ultimately headed the ball onto the pitch which to my knowledge isn’t allowed.
“I don’t even think they looked at it or just dismissed it [VAR] so that was disappointing.”
Looking at the footage, it looks to me as if the Motherwell player is trying to be smart by playing the ball off Haksabanovic’s head and it backfired on him.
Hits a player off the park, isn’t two yards away. Throw in isn’t retaken, Celtic get the ball and go up the park and score pic.twitter.com/hE6OONbhRV
— Empire (@Empire1872) November 9, 2022
There was no movement by the Celtic winger to guide the ball into the path of David Turnbull or even to play to a Celtic player.
The Motherwell midfielder made a mess of trying to get a free kick for some strange reason and it backfired.
There was nothing Haksabanovic could do.
To me, this is a perfect deflection tactic as there was still a lot to do by us from the middle of OUR OWN HALF before Maeda nestles the ball into the back of the net.
Instead of moaning about the throw in, Hammell should be having a word in his own players ear for, firstly, giving away possession too cheaply and, secondly, not defending Maeda properly.
Sour grapes anyone?
His foot is clearly on the pitch when the ball hits him, only seeing what they want to see.