Celtic defender Alistair Johnston has come out to CONFESS that Celtic got helped by Referee Nick Walsh in 3-1 win vs Rangers after obvious decision was given against Gers to favour Celtic, and he was indirectly HAPPY that Danny Rohl’s men got Robbed

Celtic full-back Alistair Johnston has admitted he may have been fortunate to avoid a red card during his side’s 3-1 derby triumph over the Ibrox club…

The away side started strongly after Mikey Moore fired them into an early lead, but the winger was later caught by a strong challenge from Johnston.

The Canadian defender escaped with only a yellow card, and after VAR reviewed the incident, the original decision was upheld.

Celtic took advantage of remaining with 11 men on the field as they came from behind to claim an important victory, with Johnston later confessing the outcome might have been very different had he been sent off.

Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s title showdown against Heart of Midlothian F.C., the 27-year-old admitted there was probably some fortune involved in the call.

He said via Celtic’s official YouTube channel: “As a defender now, you got to be so smart with every tackle you put in. Was I a little bit lucky? Yeah, probably.

“When you slow it down, again, I’m going to win the ball. Of course, you’re going to take the man, you want to get the man as well. But am I intending to injure? No. Just trying to put a hard tackle in as every single fan of both sides of that rivalry would they want their defenders to do it.

“And yeah, I caught him. I thought in the moment I caught him on the top of the foot. I wasn’t 100% sure what the VAR was going to look like. Turns out it sounded like they didn’t have the replay that might have been a bit more conclusive that I should have been sent off. This and that, it is what it is.”

Alistair Johnston also acknowledged that modern football has changed the way tackles are interpreted by referees.

“I thought in the moment yellow card was probably fair. If it was 10 years ago I would have said ‘how is that even a foul?’ But that’s just the day and age now,” he added.

“Yeah, at the end of the day, am I lucky I didn’t get sent off? Probably, but it’s football. You want to make hard tackles. I’m glad that I stayed on the pitch and we managed to win that match.”