Celtic are at war again with the SFA, this time over Scott Brown’s red card in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox. The club are set to appeal and hope referee Dougie McDonald and the SFA rescind the decision to send the midfielder packing with 25 minutes to go.

Brown, who was awarded captaincy for the Old Firm match, had a tussle with Kyle Lafferty which saw both players grappling with each other before hitting the deck.

Celtic sparked fury with the SFA for going public with their concerns over the standard of refereeing in the SPL this season. Celtic feel they have had a number of important decisions gone against them this season including two against Rangers.

A statement on the club’s website said of Brown’s incident: “It immediately seemed a controversial decision to everyone in the ground and any fair-minded person looking at the incident at the time or subsequent TV replays could see it wasn’t a red card.

“It was a decision which had a major impact on the game and Celtic will now appeal against the red card, which saw Tony Mowbray’s side down to ten men for the last half-hour of the game.

“The Celtic support in the Broomloan Road Stand and beyond were left mystified and angry at yet another refereeing decision in a derby game this season which has gone against the club.”

Celtic boss Mowbray admitted he never saw the incident after the game, but did criticise referee McDonald for his leniency shown towards Madjid Bougherra, who was booked early on, but survived several bad tackles later in the match.

Mowbray added that McDonald’s card happy start left him wondering how many players would be remaining on the pitch come the final whistle.

He said: “I thought the official made life difficult for himself today with two very early bookings. I sensed very early on that the game was not going to finish with 22 players on the field.”