Celtic denied by ref

AIDEN McGeady refused to blame referee Steve Conroy for Celtic’s failure to reduce Rangers’ seven-point lead at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League as the Old Firm derby finished 1-1 at Parkhead.

Conroy, officiating in his first game between the Glasgow giants, chalked off a firsthalf goal from Marc-Antoine Fortune when it looked like he had won fairly an aerial challenge with Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor.

The official was also lenient towards Kyle Lafferty when he only showed the Rangers striker a yellow card for a late challenge on Andreas Hinkel.

The home side ignored those two controversial decisions to dominate almost the whole game and despite missing numerous chances, it looked like they would take the points when substitute Scott McDonald headed them into the lead in the 79th minute from McGeady’s cross.

However, two minutes later Light Blues midfielder Lee McCulloch powered a Steven Davis corner past Hoops goalkeeper Artur Boruc for a share of the points.

McGeady, though, insists Celtic can only blame themselves.

‘‘You can’t really blame the referee for not winning the game, we had more than enough chances to win it,’’ he said.

‘‘We should have had the game wrapped up at half-time.

‘‘We had the majority of chances and possession and on another day it could have been three or four.

‘‘We would have gone in 1-0 up at half-time if the goal was given but I wouldn’t say this guy or that guy should have been sent off.

Lee McCulloch believes Celtic players will be ‘‘banging their heads against the wall’’ after missing a series of chances.

‘‘They will be banging their heads against the wall thinking ’why did we not win that game?’’’ he said.

‘‘I played in the France games for Scotland and we got battered but still came away winning.

‘‘That’s football. You get that and you need to move on.

‘‘It showed great character for us to come back into the game and grab the goal and hang on in the end.

‘‘Maybe we lacked a little bit of belief but we will take that point and move on.

‘‘We have to realise that we weren’t good enough as a team but we managed to get that point and we will keep going for the rest of the games.’’ McCulloch added: ‘‘I hope it does a lot (of psychological damage to Celtic’s title hopes). I don’t know how much time was left when they scored but their players and crowd got a lift from it.’’