Stuart Kettlewell blasts Celtic penalty and claims referee treated Motherwell like ‘school children’
The Fir Park manager acknowledged that his players were annoyed by the referee’s demeanor and that he was perplexed by some of the rulings.
Kettlewell thought Celtic’s penalty kick for the first goal was soft, and he was shocked that Tawanda Maswanhise was sent off for diving in the box, but his players were frustrated by the referee’s demeanor.
They were a little annoyed by the referee’s mannerisms and communication style today, Kettlewell stated.
I believe you’ll receive better responses from players if you talk to them in the right way. You won’t likely receive as much reprimands and insults from the referee.
That has nothing to do with the choices, but I think it’s just a gut instinct that we can all talk.
“I’ll contribute to that as well. Like football players, I can get a little upset at times, but sometimes you simply need to keep your composure and almost stop acting like a child in order to get out of situations.
I’m confident that players will appreciate you if you speak, communicate, and explain your thought process.
After Yang was caught by Aston Oxborough, Kettlewell thought the penalty award was unfair, and he was baffled by Maswanhise’s yellow card.
He stated: “I had a gut feeling at the time that it was soft in terms of how the Celtic player went down, and I thought there was little to no contact at all.”
“However, that goes against you but that’s not the game done. We think about trying to galvanise ourselves and coming out stronger in the second half.
I was really disappointed by the nature of the second and third goals that Celtic scored.
“This is where I’m left baffled. I don’t think it’s a penalty, but it’s not a dive. 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 are completely different from, for example, the Celtic penalty. I struggle to see that there’s a ridiculous amount more contact in either situation.”
