Neil Lennon’s Premiership leaders Celtic beat Derek McInnes’s Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup semi-final on Sunday.
Aberdeen defender Scott McKenna has highlighted the lack of consistency amongst referees in Scotland when discussing Dominic Ball’s controversial sending off in Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Celtic, as reported by the Scottish Sun.
Neil Lennon’s Celtic are one step closer to sealing a third successive domestic treble after James Forrest, Odsonne Edouard and Tom Rogic put the Dons to the sword at Hampden Park.
But the goals were arguably overshadowed by some rather controversial refereeing. Aberdeen and Celtic were level at 0-0 before Ball was sent off for a seemingly innocuous collision with Ryan Christie, which left the Hoops midfielder with a suspected fractured cheekbone.
McKenna, however, was keen to highlight a similar incident which occurred between the two sides as recently as December. Dedryck Boyata left Gary Mackay-Steven out cold after clashing with him in mid-air, only to avoid punishment as the Dons winger was stretchered off.
“Earlier this season, Gary Mackay-Steven got knocked out after a head injury from Dedryck Boyata and there was no action given against Boyata. Christie gets his head knocked in this match and our player gets the booking (which led to the red card),” McKenna said.
“The way the two of them were handled, it could have been a bit different. Boyata stayed on the pitch, but we lost a man.
“Was Dom’s challenge reckless? It might have been. But was Boyata reckless when he knocked Gaz out? Who knows? It just seems unfair.”
Luck was certainly on Celtic’s side against an Aberdeen side who finished the game with nine men. Lewis Ferguson was given his marching orders in the second half and even manager Derek McInnes was sent to the stands as the Premiership leaders cruised into the cup final.
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