Hibs boss is furious after what Alistair Johnston told his players regarding Celtic’s penalty award last night.

Celtic’s victory over Hibs last night was fairly comprehensive. Brendan Rodgers’ side cruised to a 4-1 victory over the Edinburgh side.

What, however, has enraged Hibs manager Nick Montgomery? After promising to ‘do everything’ and get a result at Celtic Park, his team only managed three shots on goal?

Or did his team simply not defend well enough, allowing four goals despite his promise? No, it was the decision to give Celtic what appeared to be a stonewall penalty that enraged him.

Especially after what Alistair Johnston told his players.

“The player who actually went down didn’t even think it was a penalty,” Montgomery said [Daily Record]. He didn’t think he got touched. He said that to the boys afterwards.

“He’s not going to get the ball, it hasn’t affected where the ball is going to go, he is already falling down and Lewis Stevenson comes down the side of him not through the back of him. If he had gone through the back of him, no problem, give a penalty.

“But, yeah, when you are talking about a crowd like this in big places when they all shout . . . Maybe I will get the Hibs fans to shout every time somebody goes down.”

For me, there was no doubt about the decision, but if Montgomery is correct, I’m going to rely on the old adage that these things will even out over the course of a season.

How many times has Celtic been penalised by questionable VAR decisions in the last two seasons? How many penalties were given against their players when the technology was only introduced last season?

I can think of at least three right off the top of my head. There are most likely others.

Instead of attempting to deflect from his team’s poor performance, Hibs manager should be asking his players why they didn’t show up at Celtic Park last night rather than focusing on a decision that had no bearing on the outcome.

In other news, Last night on Sky Sports, Chris Sutton delivered an intriguing message about Celtic and Rangers.