Vidar Riseth, the Norwegian midfielder turned emergency centre-half, launched an astonishing tirade at the referee Eric Martindale, who he insisted must share the blame for Celtic's 2-1 defeat at St Johnstone.
Riseth accepted it was his error that set up the 78th-minute winner for Saints' Kieran McAnespie but then turned his anger on Mart in dale. "I am not pleased because the defeat is my fault. What can I say? But he was unbelievable. For the first goal the referee gave a free-kick that was unbelievable. I have never seen such a bad referee in my career."
Celtic seem more likely to change head coaches than ownership in the near future in the wake of another damaging performance. The position of Jozef Venglos appears extremely vulnerable.
Venglos has not seemed to have the dynamism required at club level. Celtic have had problems with injury and suspension and were once again without important players such as Craig Burley, Paul Lambert, Alan Stubbs and Marc Rieper at McDiarmid Park on Saturday. But the defeat to opponents who had lost 7-0 to Rangers six days earlier was unacceptable to the club's huge sup port.
Miguel Simao and McAnespie's goals for St Johnstone came on either side of Henrik Larsson's single strike for Celtic, who fell 10 points behind Rangers in the Premier League.
The Old Firm clubs clash at Celtic Park next Saturday.
The Ibrox side's 2-1 home win over Aberdeen was not impressive - the head coach Dick Advocaat said: "We did not play well" - as they had to rely on a blunder from the veteran goalkeeper Jim Leighton for their winner. He allowed Andrei Kanchelskis's simple shot through his legs after Eoin Jess had equalised Giovanni van Bronck horst's opener.
The bizarre incident of the weekend involved the postponement of the First Division match between Hibernian and St Mirren. The Paisley side's coach was caught in a traffic jam as a result of an accident on the M8 and could not get to Edinburgh on time. It is expected the match will be played tomorrow week.
The Hibernian manager Alex McLeish said: "This is a bitter disappointment for us but it was an act of God and nothing could be done."
