THE SFA have handed one-match bans to Celtic's Gary Caldwell and Rangers' David Weir following their part in the melee at the end of last night's fiery Old Firm derby.
Defenders Caldwell and Weir squared up to each other on the pitch after the final whistle at Parkhead, and the Scotland team-mates will now miss crucial games for their respective clubs.
Caldwell will be absent for Celtic's Clydesdale Bank Premie
r League game against Aberdeen on Saturday, and Weir must sit out Sunday's Scottish Cup semi-final against St Johnstone.
SFA disciplinary and referees chief Drew Herbertson said: "It is the case that David Weir and Gary Caldwell are to be reported for violent conduct which means both will be suspended for the next match."
Caldwell and Weir were summoned to referee Kenny Clark's room after the match which Celtic won 2-1 thanks to Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink's stoppage-time header.
The tempestuous clash had already seen one red card shown, when Weir's centre-back colleague Carlos Cuellar was sent off for handball on the line as he prevented Shunsuke Nakamura scoring a second Celtic goal.
Clark will also include details in his match report of the incident which saw Rangers doctor Paul Jackson struck by an item thrown from the crowd as he attended to injured goalkeeper Allan McGregor. That issue will be addressed by the Scottish Premier League, rather than the SFA, once they receive Clark's report.
Aiden McGeady was also involved in an altercation with Nacho Novo at the end of the game but described it as "a bit of handbags". He claimed Celtic had made their critics eat their words with the last-gasp victory which kept their SPL title hopes alive.
The Parkhead winger knows the defending champions were criticised for a lack of fight and desire when they slumped to defeat at Ibrox last month and Rangers were tipped to run away with the honours.
He said: "There were accusations levelled at us for having a lack of character or any leaders in the team but I don't think you can say that after last night. It was a great performance. We were looking at a 1-1 draw and the league would have been out of our hands. But to keep trying to get that goal shows the character we have."
Scott McDonald stepped up for the spot-kick with 20 minutes to go and McGeady praised the spirit of both Celtic and the striker for refusing to give up after the Australian's effort was saved by McGregor.
He said: "We didn't give up and we still had chances after that and we kept on plugging away. Credit to wee Scotty, he didn't let his head go down and he headed the ball across to Jan who stuck it in. That's what it's all about."
The full article contains 482 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
