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BRENDAN RODGERS has revealed he is building in-depth dossiers on all Scottish referees.

The Celtic manager is renowned for his thorough research on rivals’ players but also does his homework on the officials – going back more than a season.

The Hoops almost came a cropper on day one as they were the victim of a dodgy penalty decision at Tynecastle when ref John Beaton was duped after Hearts ace Jamie Walker took a tumble in the box.

Celts skipper Scott Brown branded the Jambos star a diving cheat and Rodgers admitted the whistler was conned before new Bhoy Scott Sinclair spared any blushes with a late debut winner.

Beaton also dished out 11 yellow cards in the 2-1 win at Tynecastle – with the home side shown seven – and all the info will go into the manager’s ref files.

(Image: SNS Group)

Rodgers said: “We study the referee. We look at the last 35 games of the ref and his form going into games. Does he give particular cards at a high level or not? Everything’s in there.”

This background goes into the pre-match pack Rodgers hands out to every member of his squad – including all they need to know about their rival teams.

He said: “It’s not homework but the players are given a document on the opponent. Everything is in there about the player they are playing against.

“We look at the offensive organisation of the opponent and the same defensively. So we study the opponent in depth.

“But then it is the choice of the player to read it. It’s never forced on to them.

"All of them will take away a document that will allow them to be 100 per cent prepared for the game.

“Some will read every letter on there. Some, I’m sure, will set it down after 10 seconds and not look at it again. But that is life.

“It’s about us knowing as a staff we have done absolutely everything for the players to gain that extra one per cent.

“Then they don’t have any excuses. Creating that no-excuse environment is very important.”

Rodgers insisted his side won’t make any excuses against Motherwell at Celtic Park tomorrow in their 13th game in 41 days.

He added: “They have not had much chance to rest and have been working tirelessly but you can see they are getting their rewards for it.”