Ange’s Anger Is Vindicated As Celtic Will Soon Have Gone 200 Days Without A League Penalty
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The Scotsman has just published a quite incredible stat; by the time our game kicks off at the weekend we will have gone 200 days without getting a penalty kick in league action. It is surprising only because it spells out what we’re up against, but the idea of it does not shock people in the least. Anyone who watches us knows that we don’t get major calls.
The weekend was a clear-cut example of what we’re up against. The decision not to award us a spot-kick after Hearts had gotten a highly debatable one was appalling. So much for VAR making these decisions easy. The ref certainly found it easy to ignore.
In the aftermath of the game, Ange took one of his best shots at the hacks when he said that “the only penalties we take are in training. I’m looking forward to one.” It was so on the nose that the hacks must have winced. The stats now bear it out.
200 days. It’s quite incredible to think that the most attacking team in the country, the team that spends most time in the opposition penalty area, hasn’t had a spot-kick in such a long time. It is no surprise which club sits at the top of the penalty kick league table in terms of those which were awarded; it’s the Ibrox club.
Think for a moment of the disparity between the two. If this was about attacking teams getting more penalties than others we would not be so long without one.
Later on I’ll be talking about Jackson’s latest piece of wailing bitchery, and a few other issues peripheral to this, but when you see the media reaction to the weekend and the way so many of them have sought to defend and utterly indefensible decision it becomes ever clearer how we’ve gone this long without a spot kick … and you wonder how long it might be before we get another.