Nick Walsh verdict on Celtic penalty incident revealed as Simon Murray reckons Ross County honesty came at a price

Simon Murray reckons that being a stand-up guy cost him a crucial penalty at Parkhead.

The Ross County striker was gutted when ref Nick Walsh failed to award his team a spot-kick at 0-0 when Murray caught Joe Hart out and nicked possession off him. As he went past the Celtic No.1 with the goal gaping, Murray eventually couldn’t keep his balance and stumbled. The Dingwall hitman said: “There was an infringement on me and it made me stumble. “I was trying to stay on my feet and be honest and score. There was contact. The ref said that there was contact but just not enough for a penalty. If that’s in the middle of the park and I go down straight away then it’s given as a foul. It’s a penalty in my eyes.”

Salt was rubbed into County wounds just a few moments later when Walsh awarded Celtic a penalty after Josh Sims caught Greg Taylor. Murray added: “The penalty Celtic got was a fairly similar incident.

“He went down straight away but it was still the same sort of collision. They get it and we don’t. As a player coming away to Celtic Park you need things to go your way but it didn’t seem to happen.”

The Staggies were disappointed to lose but there were plenty of good signs after a bright start and goals by Jordan White and James Brown. Murray said: “There are a lot of positives for us.

“We could have scored a couple in the first 15 minutes and showed we have the mentality where we don’t give up. We always bounce back.”