Celtic’s Anthony Stokes believes referees are lenient towards Rangers

Irish striker Anthony Stokes is the latest Celtic man to claim that SPL referees sometimes favour Rangers over Celtic.

The ex-Arsenal, Falkirk and Hibernian lunged in on Rangers' Sasa Papac in Celtic's 3-1 Old Firm loss in October for which he received a yellow card.

Stokes believes that the booking was harsh, however, claiming referees have been much more lenient towards Rangers players in Old Firm games.

"It's a completely different atmosphere against Rangers when you're a Hibs player compared to being at Celtic," he said. "Maybe that had an effect on me with the early tackle I made on Papac.

"But what annoyed me was that we watched DVDs of four or five Old Firm games from the past. In every one Rangers players were going in and snapping the Celtic lads but there was never a yellow card.

"The tackle I made was down to me being wound up a bit too much. I still don't really think it was a bad tackle - he followed through a bit and got injured by the way he landed."