Dermot Gallagher and Jay Bothroyd had their say in the decision not to award The Rangers a penalty kick against Celtic on December 30th.

Since Celtic’s victory, there has been a complete online meltdown which has been spearheaded by the Ibrox club’s favoured journalists to try and make out like they were somehow cheated.

Dermot Gallagher and Jay Bothroyd both concluded that it wasn’t a penalty and could never have been one even if Willie Collum had deemed Alistair Johnston’s handball as intentional.

Gallagher concluded that while Collum didn’t think the hand ball was enough, even if VAR awarded a penalty the attacking phase of play would then have been checked and Sima was offside so the penalty would not have stood.

This is something very difficult for the hard of thinking or just the disingenuous people to accept.

This will happen when you have a club so used to getting spot kicks for the flimsiest of reasons.

Did the ref make the right decision in not awarding a penalty against Alistair Johnston❓

Rangers have criticised the Scottish FA for not yet disclosing the VAR audio they have requested over the penalty appeal in their 2-1 Old Firm loss at Celtic 📺 pic.twitter.com/DLYVRULg6S

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) January 1, 2024

Celtic outplayed their rivals on the day and that appears to be lost in this particular meltdown. It’s good news for Celtic if the Ibrox club think they would have won if they had got an illegitimate penalty.

We have already saw Bobby Madden explain the decision clearly to those disgruntled.

As for the audio being released, we should welcome all audio being released as we’ve been wondering why certain pulls in the box are penalty kicks and why others are not.