Celtic striker Griffiths: Booking for diving was "very harsh"

Leigh Griffiths has denied he dived after picking up a booking from referee Craig Thomson in Celtic's 4-2 Premiership win over St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.

The Hoops striker had opened the scoring on his 26th birthday and, before Scott Sinclair and James Forrest made it 3-0 before the interval, he was yellow-carded for going down in the home penalty area as Saints debutant Richard Foster challenged.

However, Griffiths told BBC Radio Scotland: “No, it wasn't a dive. I felt contact.

“Craig Thomson has reffed a lot of our games before. He has never seen me dive once.

“I said that to him and he said to me that he hadn't seen me dive. I said to him, 'Why are you booking me? He has made contact'.

“If it is soft, then he just waves away the claim, but for him to book me is very harsh.

“But I scored. Three points, and we take them back down the road.”

St Johnstone reduced the deficit with a Danny Swanson penalty and a Steven MacLean strike but Hoops substitute Ryan Christie fired in from close range in added time to make it 4-2.

Asked about the Griffiths booking, Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers said: “I spoke to Leigh and he thought he had contact. I would need to see it again on the replay.

“I thought the referee was excellent. He made good decisions. I haven't seen it again but Leigh felt there was contact and goes down.

“And I haven't seen anything in training or anything to say that (he is) like a lot of players nowadays, they want to simulate, to provoke the ref into the penalty.

“But yes, he has got the booking so we have to accept it.”