Nick Montgomery denies Celtic stonewaller exists as he launches loaded VAR snipe in wake of 'soft' penalty

Unbowed Nick Montgomery has claimed Hibs were on the receiving end of a "soft" penalty in their 4-1 drubbing against Celtic.

The Easter Road boss believes the call from VAR to send John Beaton to the monitor for a foul on Alistair Johnston from Lewis Stevenson. Montgomery believes it wasn't a penalty despite a Hibs player barely questioning it after the man in the middle only needed a brief second look once he watched the replay.

But the former Scotland U21 international isn't buying it and vented his frustrations at the call which allowed Luis Palma to make it 3-0. Speaking to Sportsound, he said: "The most disappointing thing was the manner of the goals we conceded They never carved us open really, it was our own doing, just poor defending. We had two really big chances, two one-on-ones in the first half. If one of those goes in, it gives us a chance to get back into the game.

"Second half, we started brightly and, for me, it's a real soft penalty (for Celtic's third goal). I've lost count of how many incidents like that we've had this season and they never go to the screen. I don't think anybody expected them to give a penalty.

"Lewis Stevenson went down the side of him and not the back of him. If you slow everything down then I am sure there will be a lot more fouls and penalties given every game. That killed any momentum we had, but we kept going and got a goal back.

"In patches we played good stuff. The first two goals are avoidable. I think we limited them to very few big chances and I thought we had the two best chances of the first half and on another day Joe Hart doesn't save two point-blank shots."