Neil Lennon described referee Bobby Madden's performance in Celtic's controversial 1-1 draw with St Mirren in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League in Paisley as "appalling" and revealed he will appeal the red card handed to midfielder Victor Wanyama.
Kris Commons headed the Parkhead side into the lead in the sixth minute but Wanyama, back from suspension, was shown a straight red card 10 minutes into the second-half for a challenge on Paul McGowan, who levelled from the spot with 10 minutes remaining after Emilio Izaguirre was adjudged to have fouled Esmael Goncalves in the box.
Hoops boss Lennon admitted his concern for the "standard of refereeing" in general but first turned his ire on Madden, who also missed a clear handball by Georgios Samaras. Lennon said: "That was the most appalling refereeing performance I have seen for a long, long time. I mean, you can't get so many big decisions so wrong, it is incredible."
He added: "For me St Mirren should have had a penalty, it is a clear handball. You don't get many more as clean-cut as that so we dodged a bullet there.
"Then I see Kayal getting wrestled into the advertising hoardings right in front of the linesman and he doesn't give a free-kick and two seconds later, I've got a man sent-off for nothing and the penalty that St Mirren did get was outside the box and there is no contact.
"So I am delighted that we got a point out of it but there is no doubt that the referee's decisions ruined what could have been potentially a good game. The sending off is ridiculous and it changed the game."
Asked if it could be presumed he would appeal Wanyama's dismissal the former Celtic skipper replied: "You can presume right, yes."
St Mirren boss Danny Lennon was more considered and conciliatory in his analysis of Madden's performance. He said: "Managers, players, supporters, we can all have bad days and I suppose it is the same with officials.
"We know the difficult job they have and once they sit back and watch that I believe they will pick up one or two things."
The St Mirren boss, though, did have his own views on some of the key incidents. He said: "For our penalty, I am led to believe it was outside the box, they say these things work themselves out throughout the game so if it was we got a wee break there."
Source: PA
