Celtic to appeal over Brown's red card

Celtic are on a fresh collision course with the SFA over Scott Brown's Old Firm red card, reports the Scottish Sun.

The Hoops slapped in an appeal for Brown less than two hours after his skipper was sent off for a clash with Kyle Lafferty.

And the Hoops cranked up the heat with a strongly-worded statement on the club website which is sure to spark even more turmoil inside Hampden.

The statement read: "Celtic will appeal. Dougie McDonald sent off the Celtic captain following a tangle with Kyle Lafferty, who went unpunished for his part in the incident.

"It immediately seemed a controversial decision to everyone in the ground and certainly, any fair-minded person looking at the incident at the time or TV replays could see it wasn't a red card.

"It had a major impact on the game. Certainly, the Celtic support were left mystified and angry at yet another refereeing decision in a derby this season which has gone against the club.

"In the first derby of the season in October, Celtic were denied a blatant penalty by Craig Thomson, who admitted after the game he made a mistake.

"And in the game at Celtic Park, Steve Conroy disallowed a Marc-Antoine Fortune goal, though replays showed there was nothing wrong with it."

Celts chief executive Peter Lawwell is due for crisis talks with his SFA counterpart Gordon Smith in the coming days.