Football: Tierney calls for Schalk to be hit with diving ban

Schalk threw himself to the ground under no contact from Celtic’s Erik Sviatchenko to win a late penalty, which Liam Boyce converted to earn County a 2-2 draw with the Premiership champions.

Tierney was the victim of Walker’s dive on the opening day of the season as the Hearts midfielder won a penalty before being hit with a two-match ban for simulation.

And Schalk can expect to receive the same punishment after fooling referee Don Robertson on Sunday.

“I knew straight it away it was a dive,” said Tierney, who scored Celtic’s opener from 25 yards. “It was the same kind of thing with Jamie Walker when we played Hearts in the first game of the season. But this incident was more obvious.

“I think Walker was banned for it, but it’s obviously not up to me. It should be the same rule for every player.

“It’s not a nice part of the game, you can expect contact, but you’re not going to go down if there’s no contact. It’s as simple as that.

“If it’s striker’s prerogative to do that then everyone would be falling about. Whenever you get close to people in games you need to stay on your feet, but if someone gets too close then fair enough.

“I couldn’t believe it when the referee gave the penalty, everyone was so surprised. The linesman had a great view and was standing straight in line with it, but obviously not.”

Celtic skipper Scott Brown was still brimming with anger when he got sent off in injury-time for a strong, late challenge on Boyce, whom he had clashed with earlier.

The midfielder will receive a two-match ban, but he will still be available for Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers as, with the deadlines 24 hours later than normal because of the Easter Monday holiday, the SFA had already told clubs any appeals from the weekend’s action would not be heard until a week on Thursday.

Of the red-card tackle, Boyce said: “I sort of knew that someone was coming, and I was waiting until the last second to try and get out of the way to buy a free-kick and take the pressure off.

“Once I flicked it though I just felt like I’d been hit by a bus, and I looked down and my sock was ripped and my leg is really swollen now.”

The striker added: “I had been hit on the hand and got it sliced a wee bit and there were a few comments then, and just before that I had made a challenge from behind on him.

“These things build up in a game and I think he might have been a wee bit frustrated with the way things went and it has just happened.

“I had fouled him and Alex had fouled him straight after, and maybe he was angry at the decision as well and things have just boiled over.”

In the post-match interview Brendan Rodgers described the penalty award as “an embarrassing decision” and the Celtic manager said he would speak to referee Don Robertson “if he lets the lock off his door.”

However, despite Rogers’ comments, SFA head of refereeing operations, John Fleming, insisted the relationship between managers and officials has rarely been better.

The two parties work together more closely than ever to ensure that players understand the rules, and referees are capable of applying them fairly and accurately, he said.

Nonetheless, the mutual understanding clearly doesn’t extend to managers calling their players out for diving, as County boss Jim McIntyre refused to do.

Fleming, however, said he would be happy to discuss any decisions with managers who feel aggrieved.

To that end, it’s a safe bet that he can expect a call from a certain Mr Rodgers any time now.

“I wouldn’t speak about individual managers, but I see all managers here to be very positive in this day and age,” Fleming said. “There will be incidents in the heat of the battle that somebody says something or whatever, but everyone is entitled to their view.

“In general, I find the managers to be very accommodating. When I go back to my own time in refereeing, everything was a bit more closed off, but nowadays the managers can have a dialogue with us. They are all up to date with technology, and you can go over an incident with them.

“It used to be that a manager would ask you about a tackle, but nowadays they have the footage, so we can have a proper talk through everything and see exactly where each of us is coming from.

He said: “Any of the managers will phone me during the course of a week to discuss matters, so the relationship I’ve got with the managers is very favourable.

“I’m here if they want to speak to me. I’m more than happy to speak to them if they want to.”

“We have some experienced young managers in Scotland just now who are doing exceptionally well like Jim McIntyre and Brendan Rodgers. I don’t have any issues with managers. We have to build on the relationship we have with them. Some will phone and have a general chat and ask if we can clarify a situation, some others don’t and that’s absolutely fine too.

“I’m here if they want to speak to me. I’m more than happy to speak to them if they want to.”

Fleming is a vocal supporter of introducing video assistant referees into football to help officials get the big decisions right. Despite successful trials though, it is unclear when Scottish referees will be able to turn to replays to assist them.

“I’ve no idea when it might come in here, that’s a decision for the respective league bodies and the Scottish FA to see if they want to put it into their cup competitions,” Fleming said.

“From a referee’s point of view though, there is no doubt that it would assist us. Look at Spain against France a few weeks ago where there were two decisions overturned that the official had made and they were proven to be right to do so.

“It won’t cure all the ailments of football, but it will certainly help the referees to get to the right decision.”