STRACH: VLAD'S A BADDIE

GORDON STRACHAN last night revealed Vladimir Romanov made a sly dig at referee Craig Thomson minutes after Saturday's Parkhead clash.

The Celtic boss congratulated coach Eduard Malofeev on his side's performance and shook hands with the Lithuanian. But despite Strachan praising Hearts, Romanov suggested Thomson had helped the SPL leaders come back from the death to win 2-1.

Asked about his exchange with speaking to me. He did mention something about the referee. I was just congratulating him and his coach on a smashing performance and, no doubt about it, I heard the referee being mentioned.

"But there you go. I think it happens so often now. I think people look on it as crying wolf too often. You just get on with it."

And in an interview on Setanta, Strachan added: "He was going on about the referee again. It's getting a bit repetitive now. I think we have heard all that before."

Former Hearts chairman Leslie Deans confirmed Romanov had complained about the referee in the aftermath of Hearts' defeat.

And Deans himself made the serious accusation that Scottish football was biased towards Celtic.

He said: "Up until the 86th minute the referee was strong. But the reality is that, for the fourth game in a row against Celtic, a big decision has gone against Hearts.

"I spoke with Vladimir and sensed he felt exactly the same as me - a mixture of anger, disappointment and frustration.

"The one positive we can take is I sensed this makes Vladimir more determined than ever to change this, to do everything he can to have an effect. It's sad the game should be going through this.

"The point of all of this is that Scottish football is not doing itself any favours by allowing this to continue. We ultimately have to look at how referees are handling the game in this country and if they are not up to it, we must bring in people from elsewhere."

Strachan, meanwhile, revealed he hopes Thomas Gravesen will start against Falkirk in tonight's CIS Cup quarter-final. He said: "I will speak to Thomas and hope he will feel fit enough to start."

Taken from the Daily Record