Neil Lennon criticises abysmal referee as Hibs lose to 12-man Celtic

Hibs’ Head Coach Neil Lennon believes that his players faced 12-men during Celtic’s 4-2 victory at Parkhead yesterday and slammed the performance of referee Don Robertson.

Tom Rogic gave Celtic an early lead against the injury hit visitors then Olivier Ntcham added a second before the Hoops’ skipper Scott Brown had to leave the field with an injury.

Lennon changed from a back three to a back four which added stability to the defence then Florian Kamberi pulled one back before Odsonne Edouard restored Celtic’s two goal advantage with 20-minutes remaining.

Martin Boyle made it 3-2 then with play raging from end to end the hosts wrapped the game up when Edouard grabbed his second goal of the day.

After the game Lennon said: “I’m really pleased with what I saw second half. In a 38-game season it’s very difficult to maintain the consistency, especially against the quality of opposition and when you are playing against 12 men it’s very difficult.

“I thought the referee was abysmal. How Benkovic doesn’t get a yellow card and (Darren) McGregor does is beyond me.

“He has taken Hyndman completely out of the game. We get a free-kick on the edge of the box, no yellow card. He says he’s not going near the goal but it doesn’t matter. The intent is just to take thee player out and then we got flagged for offside from a defensive tackle and we are breaking.<!-- -->