Kilmarnock defender Frazer Wright has admitted assaulting Celtic's Japanese star Shunsuke Nakamura and now says he regrets his thuggish behaviour. But despite escaping censure completely Wright still thinks he was hard done by and that too much was made of his 'wee slap'.
The incident was completely ignored by the Setanta TV crew and even the usually vigilant Scott Booth missed it - and this is a man who has replayed many lesser incidents dozens of times when Celtic players have been the alleged perpetrators. Even so the Killie man still somehow believes the incident in which he viciously slapped Nakamura's head was blown out of proportion. Wright had felt aggrieved when Nakamura had been awarded, in his opinion, a soft penalty kick although pictures would later show that the referee had called the decision correctly.
Celtic manager Gordon Strachan brought the assault to the attention of a disinterested press corps following Celtic's victory over Kilmarnock in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League on September 21st. Refusing to get involved in any media-led controversy over the legitimacy of the spot-kick award he instead concentrated on the unreported attack on his player.
"I think if you look in the rules, then if you pull someone by the jersey it's a penalty. You didn't see it properly on television because the camera was at the wrong side, but the referee saw it right away." he said, before turning the spotlight on the incident the press were prepared to ignore.
"What, surprisingly, wasn't shown too often was Nakamura getting a slap on the head by one of their players. Now, trust me, if that had been a Celtic or Rangers player, it might even have made the front page of some of the tabloids," said Strachan, "'To be provoked like that and turn away from it is fantastic. In any other business, if you get a smack on the head you say something about it. But he was pushed, shoved and slapped on the head and just walked away."
Wright has confessed that his frustrations had boiled over in a match in which his side had been totally outplayed. "I think it was blown out of proportion a wee bit but I know I shouldn't have done what I did, I was out-paced by Samaras for the second goal and then to lose a penalty the way we did, my emotions just got the better of me." he said in a poor attempt to justify his unacceptable loutish behaviour."
He's hoping that it'll be forgotten about when they face Celtic again in the quarter-finals of the Co- operative Insurance Cup at the end of the month. "I've not spoken to him about it but I'm sure I'll be able to do that when we play Celtic in the cup in a few weeks." he said, "Hopefully it will be forgotten about but you know what fans are like, they will probably bring it up. I'm not going to do it again anyway!"