Brian Rice insists Celtic were handed a 'nice present' by referee Don Robertson for the penalty opener in their win over Hamilton.
The Hoops opened the scoring in the second half after Odsonne Edouard was tripped in the box by Accies defender Aaron Martin and the Frenchman stepped up to convert the spot-kick for Neil Lennon's side.
However, raging Rice believes whistler Robertson must have been in the festive spirit when he pointed to the spot five minutes into the second half.
He told Sky Sports: "To be fair it's the season of presents and when you see the penalty they have got a nice present there to change the game second half, an early goal. My boys gave it everything they could.
When pushed on the incident he said: "I don't want to get into trouble by talking about it."
With Rice's Premiership strugglers forced to field a second string side due to a lengthy injury list, the boss was pleased with the performance of his players.
He added: "We done everything we could today. We are disappointed to lose 3-0 but I couldn't have asked for any more from them.
"We stuck at it and that's the big point for me. We played Celtic with all the injuries we had. They played very, very well but we were frustrating them."
