“I got there in time,” says Alistair Johnston. “The linesman thought it was in”

The Celtic Star

·24 février 2025

“I got there in time,” says Alistair Johnston. “The linesman thought it was in”

Interesting that Celtic decided to put Alistair Johnston up for media duties today ahead of Celtic’s Scottish Premiership match against Aberdeen at Celtic Park tomorrow evening…

Alistair Johnston, Hibs v Celtic. 22 February 2025.Photo: Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Johnston of course was the player who got to the byeline to cut the ball back for Daizen Maeda to level the scores at 2-2 at Easter Road on Saturday lunchtime. We know that both the linesman and the match referee thought that the ball was in but unfortunately for Celtic Alan Muir on VAR duties had other ideas and ruled out the goal ‘factually’ stating that the ball was out.

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Celtic in contact with the Scottish FA today

Celtic has been in contact with the Scottish FA today, as Brendan Rodgers confirmed at his own media conference, and the club will be looking for the factual details that Muir based his decision on. If it’s merely a guess using the footage from the 18-yard line then that is going to be a big problem for Willie Collum.

Match official Willie Collum arrives at the stadium prior to the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and theRangers at Celtic Park on May 11, 2024. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Alistair Johnston was measured discussing the incident and confirms that as the person closed to the incident he reckons that the ball was still in play. The is going to run and run this story.

On the next page – Everything that Alistair Johnston said to the media this afternoon…

Alistair Johnston arrives at Easter Road. Hibs v Celtic. 22 February 2025.Photo: Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Q: First of all, we’ll start with the game on Saturday and just the reaction to that. What did you make of the performance and where do you think it came from, especially the first 45 minutes?

Alistair Johnston: “Yeah, we came out of the blocks a little slow, and when you go to Easter Road, it’s a crowd that can get really lively and they’re a good team. I mean, they’ve picked up in form since the beginning of the season. They’ve been really strong, I think, especially the past couple of months. We knew it was going to be a difficult game and obviously we got off to a horrible start and giving up a pretty soft goal. But no, credit to them. They gave us a difficult match. It was a frustrating one to concede a second one as well just before half-time. It gave us quite a lot of work to do in the second half.

Callum McGregor, Hibs v Celtic. 22 February 2025.Photo: Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

“I thought we had a much better performance in the second half. But again, when you leave yourself that much to do away from home, it can be really difficult. So no, fair play to them, they got the result. We’re just going to move on from it. It’s one of those ones, you know, those kinds of games unfortunately can happen. But we’ve been pretty strong this year about limiting those. And if, you know, we start off with a bad spell, we normally can, you know, nip it in the bud pretty quick. But that one got a little out of hand for us.

“We let it kind of drift through the entire first half. So that’s a frustrating thing. But we’ve learned from it and we’re ready to move on. And again, we’re lucky we got another midweek game. So no real time to dwell on it.”

Q: Yeah, is that the key answer? That when the club have had very few setbacks this season, but when they have come, you’ve managed to just almost just ignore it and go again.

Alistair Johnston: “I think that’s a sign of a team that’s competing for titles. You need to have that. You need to have a short memory. Because again, if you dwell on things too long here, the games just come so thick and fast that you can really kind of spiral out of control a little bit if you get yourself caught up in that. So we do a really good job of that. The manager is very good at keeping us in line and making sure that the messaging is right to the players in terms of, what we need to focus on, and what we need to refocus on.

Hibs v Celtic. 22 February 2025.Photo: Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

“And also knowing when something was going wrong. There’s a reason why we lost that match. Okay, what can we dissect from that game? What do we need to get better? But at the same time, not treating it like it’s the end of the world. So I think that we’ve done a really good job of that so far this year. And it’s going to be really important in this run in here, the next couple of months, to keep that same kind of mentality and that same focus so that we can run through the finish line, sprint through it, ideally.”

On the next page – Alistair Johnston on the goal that wasn’t given at Easter Road after Daizen Maeda scored from his cross…

Q: I’ve got to ask you about the goal that wasn’t the equaliser. It was you who crossed it. What was your take on the situation?

Alistair Johnston: “No, I thought I got there in time. It felt like one of those ones that I knew was going to be close. But at the same time, I’m often putting crosses in from that exact area when I’m reaching. And that one, to me, felt like it was in. Obviously, the linesman thought it was in as well. Our whole fanbase thought it was in. Everyone thought it was in. So yeah, we’re just going to wait and hear what the exact explanation was on why the ball was then overturned. But yeah, that’s gone now. At the end of the day, it’s unfortunate. I would have loved it to count because there’s still time on the clock to maybe get something.

“But at the same time, even when we didn’t score, when they took it back, there were still 15 minutes or so for us to go and find an equaliser. And we didn’t manage to do it. So the game’s done. Nothing can be changed now. So just kind of moving on. And yeah, focus on Aberdeen now.”

Q: Just finally on that, did you watch it back? Did you watch the highlights back? The angle, you don’t see it from anywhere but the 18 yards away. Was that surprising that they then overturned it?

Alistair Johnston: “I mean, I’ve heard some comments on it. And again, I think that’s the frustrating part is that if you want VAR to intervene, and especially on things where it either is yes or no, it’s objective, it’s not subjective, you need to then obviously have a camera angle that can prove that. And unfortunately, I think up here that I’m not sure if it’s just the budget, what it is with the VAR, but we obviously just don’t have enough camera angles to really have 100 per cent certainty on decisions. And if that’s the case, then you really should stick with what the officials have made the decision on the field with. And I think that that’s something that’s… I don’t even think that’s really something that’s going to be argued.

“I think that’s something that everyone can kind of agree on. So at the end of the day is that, yeah, if the money’s there to have the goal line technology and the cameras and all the different angles, then that would be unbelievable because you would make sure that you get all those calls 100 per cent correct. But at the same time, if it’s not there for whatever reason, then we also have to trust that the people, the refs are of the standard to be able to do their job and trust that they’re doing their job correctly. So yeah, that’s kind of my viewpoint on it.”

On the next page – What Alistair Johnston is expecting from Aberdeen on Tuesday night at Celtic Park…

Q: What are you expecting from Aberdeen? They’re sort of getting back on track after a sticky period?

Alistair Johnston: “They are another team – similar to Hibs – in that way that they have picked up some form here. And again, a really talented squad. There’s a reason why they started off the season so well. You know, they can go, they can beat anyone home or away. So we’re expecting a difficult match there. And again, yeah, as you said, another team that’s picking up form. So we’re going to be prepared for that. We know that this is a big match for them. And obviously, it’s a big match for us coming back from a defeat on the weekend.”

18 02 2025, Champions League, FC Bayern Muenchen vs Celtic Glasgow, Allianz Arena. Alistair Johnston Celtic Glasgow vs Harry Kane FC Bayern Muenchen. Photo IMAGO

Q: Obviously, it’s been quite an emotional period in terms of the highs and lows of Munich and then losing to Hibs at the weekend. How important is it just to refocus and get going again tomorrow?

Alistair Johnston: “It’s super important. It’s what we touched on. It’s good in a way that there’s so many matches that it’s so just focus on the next one day after day. There’s no real time to dwell on things. It gives us an opportunity to get right back out there and, you know, right our wrongs to a degree. So no, there’s an excitement there from the group that we get another chance to go out there. This is a big week for us. Obviously three matches, you know, the last midweek match before the split. We’ll have one more after the split normally. So after this it gets, you know, the schedule for us gets a little bit slower with more, you know, one match kind of a week.

Alistair Johnston of Celtic looks dejected as they applaud the Celtic fans after the final whistle. Final score Bayern Munich 1 Celtic 1 Agg. 3-2. Bayern Munich v Celtic, UEFA Champions League, Knockout Round Play-offs, Second Leg, Football, Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany – 18 February 2025 Ulrich Gamel/Shutterstock

“So it’s a big push here to get through this period right now. And yeah, we’ve got the squad for it. And hopefully, you know, Celtic Park on a midweek evening game. Normally those are pretty good. So we’re expecting a big turnout from the crowd and hopefully a big turnout from us as well.”