CONNOR GOLDSON reckons referee Willie Collum was swayed by the Parkhead crowd during Rangers’ Old Firm defeat on Sunday.

Boss Steven Gerrard was furious with the whistler as he waved play on when Tom Rogic collided with Ryan Jack on the edge of the Celtic area.

And his anger was compounded just seconds later as Celtic broke and Olivier Ntcham clinched the win by slotting home the only goal of the game.

The Light Blues were roared on by just 800 supporters during the derby clash after their ticket allocation for Parkhead was slashed.

And Goldson believes Collum took the appeals from the home fans on board throughout the 90 minutes of Premiership action.

He said: “It is a foul. Realistically it is a foul and I think everyone who watches it will see it is a foul.

“But when you are away and the crowd don’t cheer for you to get a foul it doesn’t get given but anything their crowd cheer for is always a free-kick. You have to expect it.

“When their crowd make a big noise, the referee gives them everything. When you only have a small portion of the crowd and you don’t get a noise, there were a lot of play ons when they made fouls.

“But I am not going to sit here and criticise it. At the end of the day, we have lost the game. It is a foul in the build-up but we can’t only blame that.

“He carried on playing but we were about to win the ball on the edge of their box and the next minute our player is on the floor and they are running away with it. He is on the floor.

“We carried on defending but their players are able to run 80 yards with the ball. You cant stop it when you are marking a striker. Realistically it is a foul.

“I don’t know [if the smaller away crowd made a difference] because even if there are 7,000 Rangers fans, there are still 53,000 Celtic fans.

“I just think it is important for the official to be strong and play the game himself.

“He doesn’t have to give a free kick when the crowd is up when it is not a free kick. Play the game yourself. I am not here to criticise him, he has got a tough job.

“It is probably some of the best atmospheres in the world at both stadiums so they are going get swayed a bit. I am not here to criticise him but I think he has made a wrong decision.”

The decision not to halt play for the incident with Jack wasn’t the only one that irked Goldson as Rangers suffered their first defeat of the campaign.

The defender was penalised for a foul on Ryan Christie on the edge of the Gers box and picked up a yellow card in the final minutes.

And he was bemused by the call from Collum that rounded off a disappointing afternoon at the office for Rangers.

Goldson said: “Did you see it? What did you think? Put it this way, if that makes someone go to ground then I must be the strongest man in history.

“My one finger must be so strong that it makes someone go to ground. The crowd make a noise, it is a free-kick and I get a yellow card.

“I am not going to come here and blame the referee for our performance. I thought we gave a good account of ourselves but at crucial times in games when it doesn’t go your way your are disappointed.”

It was to prove a frustrating afternoon for Rangers as they failed to build on their midweek European success over Ufa in the first Old Firm showdown.

The Gers grew into the encounter as an attacking force but never caused Celtic enough problems as their poor derby record continued.

Defeat to Brendan Rodgers’ side was the first real setback under the guidance of boss Gerrard and leaves them four points adrift of Celtic in the Premiership standings.

Goldson said: “I thought we were in the game for the whole game. Obviously they have a few chances across the game, so do we.

“We were unbeaten for 12 games and we lose 1-0 but I am proud of the team that I play for and proud of how they performed. I think we will only keep growing.

“We gave them too much respect in the first half, I don’t think we got out and pressurised them and defending a bit too deep. Second half the game was in the balance and we started playing football a bit more like we can.

“I think just before they score you start to hear their crowd get a bit edgy and their players forcing things a bit.

“That is what we wanted, what we knew would happen and the game plan was working but obviously the goal lifts the crowd and whole team and it is tough to get back.”