Soccer: Stamp out cheating - O'Neill

Celtic manager Martin O’Neill wants cheating stamped out - but not at the expense of innocent players.

The Parkhead side defeated Livingston despite being reduced to 10 men following the second-half dismissal of Joos Valgaeren.

O’Neill believes the Belgian defender was unlucky to see red and was angered by other decisions made by referee Garry Mitchell during the 3-2 win.

Veteran Lubomir Moravcik was booked for diving, although he claimed he had been clipped by Livingston’s Oscar Rubio, prompting O’Neill to urge officials to be sure of the facts before branding his players cheats.

‘‘I may be wrong but I thought it looked very unfortunate when Joos was sent off,’’ said O’Neill. ‘‘I’ll have to see it again on television though.

‘‘I knew when the foul occurred that he would go but, from where I was standing, it looked very unfortunate.

‘‘I was more concerned about Lubo, though. I am all for cutting out diving but the referee has to be spot on about it.’’

Moravcik fired Celtic into the lead after 11 minutes with a superb, curling free-kick but that was cancelled out by a Rubio header before the interval.

Henrik Larsson gave Celtic the lead again shortly after the break, and, although stubborn Livingston fought back once again through Francisco Quino, Larsson snatched all three points with a last-minute winner.

It is the second time within a fortnight Celtic have defeated Livingston but O’Neill reckons Jim Leishman’s side should be commended for having a go and almost ruining Celtic’s 100% home record.

‘‘We got the result eventually and I thought it was an excellent result,’’ said O’Neill. ‘‘Livingston have come on in leaps and bounds, without a doubt.

‘‘I always knew that this would be a hard game and I thought it was a very open game but for the first 30 minutes we were in control.

‘‘Livingston played very well and I’m sure they are very disappointed about the late goal but I thought that it was very commendable that they came here to play.’’

Livingston general manager Jim Leishman said his side were deflated. ‘‘After the last game we were determined to come here and not give away goals, so it was very disappointing that they scored three times,’’ he said.

‘‘When you come back into the game and then they score everything just drains from you because the players put in so much.’’