DrewDon

It seems counterintuitive, but the bottom six fixtures - and the type of forwards he will come up against - will almost be a bigger challenge for Gartenmann than yesterday, despite being up against technically much poorer players. It is similar for Polvara in midfield. He did well enough in the first half yesterday, but fell away after half-time and we begun to get dominated. He will likely get another chance next week against Motherwell with Shinnie suspended, so I want to see him stepping up and influencing games against bottom six teams when we are likely to have a majority of the ball. Also to see how well he copes when he comes up against midfielders more likely to make the game a battle and who will relish the physical side of things.

Clattenburg should stand down tonight, distance himself from the statement and, most importantly of all, give his full focus to Gladiators.

I genuinely despise Manchester United Football Club. An appalling institution.

I genuinely think that penalty from Torp is one of the best I have ever seen.

Great to see him getting involved. I'm sure the blog will be a treat, regardless of who wins.

I think he was trying to pass it across the six-yard box to Hojlund rather than shooting himself.

I think it's harsh, and I don't think it would be given if the referee hadn't awarded it on the pitch, but I'm more than happy for it to stand.

That is probably fair. If you put him up against a Simon Murray or a Kyle Vassell type of centre-forward, you can tell he just isn't comfortable with the amount of physicality: he ends up either not engaging and taking up a deeper starting position, which in itself is a problem, or engaging, getting turned and beaten too often and then having to make up ground. If you have someone like Rubezic to partner him then you can alleviate that to an extent, but you can't escape it entirely as a centre-back in this league. Whilst I don't mind MacDonald and it was nice to see him get some redemption for his misjudgements at Celtic's first two goals, he doesn't quite offer that some degree of physical coverage, which is presumably why Robson seemed to settle on Rubezic and Gartenmann as his preferred pairing when he did eventually move to a back four.

The handball is borderline, I think - it would be given in Scotland, but I have seen enough in England to know that the bar for intervention is higher there (and I personally prefer that approach). The one with Reyna is undoubtedly one that, if it gets given on the pitch, the VAR isn't intervening; again, though, I have seen similar ones this season that have also not been reviewed most likely on the basis that the degree of contact from Young isn't severe enough. The most egregious of the three is the last one, I think.

Gartenmann was excellent yesterday. He kind of epitomises this team: he seems to have his best performances against better teams and in bigger games. When he plays like that, he is the best centre-back at the club by a country mile. I do wonder if he just doesn't like playing against really physical attackers, which is always going to a big problem for him in Scotland if he does sign permanently.

It's good to see Clattenburg earning his wages, at least.

All VAR and referee process chat aside, the challenge from Hoilett on Johnston is one of those that feels like it is given 50% of the time, and let go the other 50% of the time. Celtic fans claiming it is absolutely blatant are at it, but so are some of our fans I have seen claiming that it is 'never' a foul or the most scandalous decision ever. Carter-Vickers on Hoilett is a foul, but it's the sort of foul that seems to be becoming increasingly common, especially inside the penalty box, and I'm not sure I like it. Shades of Phillips/Gordon in the Newcastle v West Ham game a few weeks back, and no doubt numerous other examples.

In fairness, I think he gives it when he first blows the whistle - it looked like he's pointing at the spot rather than the six-yard box, but he is giving the free-kick.

I was celebrating the award of a penalty for a solid ten seconds in the ground, I'll be honest about that. Next time I look at Robertson, he's signalling for a free-kick. I will actually go against the grain of Aberdeen fans and say that I understand why a foul has been given on Johnston having seen the incident back: it's one of those that could probably go either way and you should just stick with the on field decision. It's not a clear and obvious error either way. If he's given it on field then that's fine and, as said above, we thankfully equalised anyway.

I haven't read most of the thread, but my feeling at the game is that we were excellent in the first half and for the final fifteen or so minutes in the second half. The only period of proper Celtic dominance was the first twenty minutes of the second half, but we did just enough to keep ourselves in the game. When the line up was announced, I thought it wasn't pragmatic enough, but credit to Leven for a brave selection and the players for actually being so brave in possession - basically the main thing that we weren't in the League Cup final against Rangers. In fairness, this team hasn't really shown that they are capable of producing a performance like that, even against a weaker Celtic team that some we have come up against in recent years. The most disappointing aspect of normal time is just the nature of the goals we lost - the first is really poor from MacDonald, and then the second (although I didn't notice it at the game), watching the replay it appears that MacDonald should probably be blocking it. Some excellent individual performances - Clarkson and Miovski's link play was superb throughout, Barron was terrific, Gartenmann (for all I don't particularly rate him) seems to have a habit of playing well in the big games and did again today, McGrath really good throughout. The quality of Hoilett's deliveries when he came on was sublime, and you could tell that Johnston wasn't sure how to deal with him, and Milne also stood up well to being thrown in. I could probably mention others, but it was just a really good collective performance if not completely free of costly individual errors. Just gutted that we couldn't quite get the end that we would have merited in the shootout. I have previously fought against the narrative of Roos being bad at penalties on the basis that penalties are just very hard for goalkeepers, but even I was getting annoyed at his technique - most of them were well taken by Celtic anyway, but he seemed to be making himself smaller if anything. I just felt ill watching the whole thing, though, so wasn't really paying a huge amount of attention. Gutted at the outcome, but heartened by the performance and pleasantly surprised by the relative success of the approach.

Boring, isn't it? Staying in, watching Rangers chuck away a title race with your life. Not for me, I like it.

I thought Docherty was going to go on the pitch and challenge Lawrence for the loose ball there.

Really impressed by how brave Dundee are when they get the ball. It is something I noticed on Saturday and other times when they have played us this season, but I arrogantly assumed it might be because they knew they were better than us anyway.

Referees sternly speaking to bemused looking club officials on the side of the pitch is one of my little joys of football.

Whether that is the case or not, we seem to be giving a ludicrous amount of very soft handballs in Scotland that just aren't given in other leagues even with VAR. That one with Souttar is never a penalty nor a foul, but maybe how badly the handball laws are applied here has poisoned our minds. I'd rather we do away with VAR entirely, but it is presumably here to stay so that is something that needs to be addressed for next season because it has been a joke this year.

That is never a penalty, natural position and very close range. Not sure why they needed the length of time to clear it that they did - should have been done in one or two viewings maximum.

I would sack him now. We should get ahead of the curve this time.

It's a bit of a sore point, but I 'sold' it on Facebook Marketplace to an individual who has since been uncovered as a prolific online scammer. Needless to say, our so-called law enforcement have been utterly useless in this whole debacle.

I'm a Villa man (been to two games this season), but all proper football men surely respect Chelsea. They aren't really a club you can dislike.

I'm loath to praise VAR, but if it has to exist, at least the Premier League seem to have reached a point where they are clearing stuff like that challenge from Keane quite quickly. It was borderline, could have gone either way, so just accept the referee's on-field decision and minimise the delay. I genuinely think they might have needed about five minutes to review it in Scotland and would have then sent the referee to the monitor.