St Johnstone keeper Zander Clark may have been almost the full length of the pitch away from the controversial incident but he was still certain his side should have had a penalty against Celtic at Parkhead on Wednesday night.
Saints had held the Hoops until the 72nd minute in Glasgow before Dedryck Boyata scored what proved to be the only goal of the game with a bullet header.
Shortly after, though, Celtic captain Scott Brown shoved St Johnstone skipper Steven Anderson in the back in the home box with the defender falling to the turf.
However, referee Andrew Dallas ruled no offence had been committed, a decision that baffled Clark.
The goalie, who made a string of impressive saves at Parkhead, said: “I was standing right in line with it down my end. It wasn’t just a nudge in the back, it was two hands on Ando’s back and I don’t know how the referee’s not given it.
“It’s one of those things. We’re not going to sit and moan about it. We’ll deal with it. At the time I thought he was going to give it. But if he’s not 100 per cent sure then he can’t give it.
“But even at my end of the park, I thought it was a definite penalty. I had a clear sight of it, watching the ball going into the box and then seeing Ando pushed.
“Maybe there were others in the box blocking the referee’s sight of it as the ball came in.
“It was disappointing. But we’ve had other chances as well.”
Overall, Clark believed Saints gave a good account of themselves and also came agonisingly close to taking the lead when a Danny Swanson first-half shot cannoned off Craig Gordon’s post.
Clark added: “I thought we were going to get something from the game. We seemed to be in the match, even though Celtic had most of the possession.
“We’ve hit the post and had a few chances from set plays while I thought we defended relatively well.
“The longer the game was going on I started to think it might go for us, get a point or sneak a goal from a corner or whatever.
“So it was bitterly disappointing how things turned out. However, we just need to dust ourselves down and focus on the massive game coming up against Hamilton on Saturday.
“We need to make sure we recover well and look to be in the right frame of mind for that.
“For us it’s about trying to go on another wee run and picking up as many points as we can.
“We want to try and secure a top six place as quickly as possible and then work our way up the table.”
St Johnstone will have an early chance to go toe to toe with Celtic once more on February 5 and Clark admits he cannot wait to test himself against the defending champions again.
He added: “The games come around quickly. That’s twice we’ve played them now. The first game was 4-2 but we were in the match for large parts of that as well and got it back to 3-2.
“Now, Celtic haven’t scored until late on. When we play them at our place we’ve got a chance if we play like we can. Hopefully we can take something from the game.”
