Alan Thompson disappointed by referee’s penalty decision

Celtic first team coach Alan Thompson was left frustrated after his team’s Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Hearts, saying he felt they were “done” by referee Euan Norris.

Gary Hooper had equalised in the 87th minute to cancel out Rudi Skacel’s opener.

However the capital club earned a place against rivals Hibernian in the final after the official judged Joe Ledley had handled Marius Zaliukas’ shot.

Thompson was aggrieved at the decision and stated he believes Celtic should also have had a penalty when the ball struck Andy Webster in the dying moments of the match.

"Yet again we feel like we've been done," Thompson told Sky Sports News.

"The League Cup final, we had a stonewall penalty (not given)."

"We are very, very disappointed to say the least, more for the players and the fans."

Speaking to other members of the media after the match he added: "It's inconsistency from the referee. If one's a penalty the other one's a penalty.

"Initially we thought the Hearts one wasn't a penalty. The ball came up to Joe Ledley's hand and it was so close to his hand he couldn't get out of the way.

"If that was a penalty we thought the Webster one should have been a penalty.

"There's an inconsistency with how the referee sees it. Yet again we think we've been done in a cup final from a big decision. In the League Cup final we were denied a stonewall penalty.

"On the whole we're disappointed and thought we deserved more.

"We obviously wanted to go on and finish the season on a high but that won't take away what we've done in the league."

Manager Neil Lennon confronted Norris on the pitch after the final whistle, weeks after accusing referee Willie Collum of making "a criminal decision" in Celtic’s League Cup final defeat to Kilmarnock.

However Thompson wouldn’t elaborate on what Lennon said to Norris.

"What happened in the tunnel, stays between us and the referee," Thompson said.

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