Ross County's Simon Murray bemused by Celtic penalty award after what Nick Walsh told him in denying his claim

Ross County's Simon Murray remonstrates with referee Nick Walsh after having his appeal for a penalty waved away by the official. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)Ross County's Simon Murray remonstrates with referee Nick Walsh after having his appeal for a penalty waved away by the official. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)
Ross County's Simon Murray remonstrates with referee Nick Walsh after having his appeal for a penalty waved away by the official. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)
Ross County striker Simon Murray believes the Highland club were held to a different standard than Celtic over the level of contact constituting a penalty as they opened their Premiership campaign with a 4-2 loss in Glasgow’s east end.

With the contest goalless, the forward had an appeal for a spot-kick turned down by referee Nick Walsh following a brush with Celtic keeper Joe Hart that led to him taking another stride forward before losing his footing. He was left bemused that the contact threshold for a penalty appeared altogether different shortly afterwards. Celtic able to take the lead from the spot after Walsh deemed a Josh Simms’ touch on Greg Taylor that sent him hurling to the ground merited sanction. Murray is insistent the two incidents should not have resulted in contrasting outcomes, even as VAR backed the on-field decisions.

“There was contact,” he said of what occurred when he looked to go round Hart. “The ref just said there wasn’t enough for a penalty. But there was an infringement on me and it made me stumble. I was trying to stay on my feet and be honest and score. If that’s in the middle of the park and I go down straight away then it’s given as a foul. I think the referee has to look at it and see that there was no advantage there - it’s a penalty in my eyes. But sometimes you get them and sometimes you don’t.

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“It’s just disappointing as the referee said there was contact, but just not enough for a penalty. I don’t really know what that means when he’s admitting there was contact. The penalty Celtic got was a fairly similar incident. He went down straight away but it was still the same sort of collision - they get it and we don’t. As a player coming away to Celtic Park you need things to go your way but it didn’t seem to happen.”

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