SFA to look at Old Firm video nasty

Scottish Premier League: The Scottish Football Association's video-review panel is to examine a series of incidents from Saturday's Old Firm game.

It was not a pretty sight as Celtic's Alan Thompson and Chris Sutton were sent off, Rangers' defender Bob Malcolm was spoken to by the police, six others were booked and Martin O'Neill was accused by some of making a provocative gesture at the end, when he put his arm around his captain Neil Lennon and raised a clenched fist in front of the visiting fans.

There was also a plethora of other incidents which officialdom, match officials and police turned a blind eye to.

There was Peter Lovenkrands's shameful exaggeration of the effects of Thompson's head movement that saw the Celtic player sent off, there was a stamp from Henri Camara on Gregory Vignal that was ignored, there were Nacho Novo's tackles on Jackie McNamara and Stephen Pearson that deserved red cards and there was Lennon's running feud with just about everyone.

There are also rumours of a half-time bust-up involving Sutton and Lovenkrands.

It will be Celtic who are principally in the dock in what was, footballing and discipline-wise, an untypical performance. Rangers were no innocents but by and large they kept their cool and that allowed them to win courtesy of a Novo penalty and a Dado Prso header to move within a point of the visitors.

Football, though, broke out sporadically and Jean-Alain Boumsong enhanced his growing reputation. The French defender was left bewildered by events but insisted he had no problem with O'Neill's post-match antics.

"Before I came here from Auxerre I was told about this fixture, and it was mad [ today]," he said.

"But it is maybe the best derby in the world and I am proud to have been involved.

"As for Mr O'Neill's actions, they showed he is a good manager and is supportive of his players. I just hope there will not be a spirit of vengeance or revenge in future matches. The next game will be important but it is not right to get angry and become crazy. We need the fighting spirit, but we don't actually need to fight."

RANGERS: Klos; Khizanishvili (Malcolm 71), Andrews, Boumsong, Vignal (Ball 59), Namouchi, Ricksen, Rae, Lovenkrands (Arveladze 45), Prso, Novo. Subs Not Used: G Smith, Thompson, Hutton, MacKenzie. Booked: Lovenkrands, Rae, Khizanishvili.

CELTIC: Hedman; McNamara, Balde, Varga, Valgaeren, Petrov (McGeady 79), Sutton, Lennon, Thompson, Hartson, Camara (Pearson 45). Subs Not Used: Marshall, Juninho Paulista, Lambert, Wallace, Lawson. Sent Off: Thompson (38), Sutton (56). Booked: Camara, Sutton, Lennon, McNamara.

Referee: K Clark (Scotland).

Guardian Service