St Mirren appeal rejected by Ref Smith

[Boab 73]

St Mirren defender Will Haining has been denied the opportunity to appeal against the red card he was shown in Sunday's 1-0 defeat to Celtic.

Haining was dismissed following a challenge on Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Barry Robson netted from the resultant penalty kick.

St Mirren boss Gus MacPherson said: "Will feels it was an injustice."

However, referee Eddie Smith has reviewed the incident and is content with his original verdict.

Consequently, Haining will be banned for Saturday's home game with Kilmarnock.

"I have watched the incident from various angles and I can see how Eddie Smith made the decision from the view that he had," said MacPherson when launching a bid to contest the red card.

"But one view shows that Will Haining didn't foul Vennegoor of Hesselink.

"The Celtic player has a handful of Haining's shirt and he actually loses his balance."

MacPherson was unhappy with the performance of Smith, who he also criticised last season after the award of a free-kick at St Mirren Park that saw Shunsuke Nakamura firing in a late winner for Celtic.

MacPherson claimed the referee had winked at him on Sunday and questioned whether the gesture was aimed at irritating him.

Following the defeat at Celtic Park, MacPherson also suggested he had been singled out at the Scottish referees' annual conference.

The Buddies boss claimed he had been one of two managers whose faces were shown on a screen at one point.

However, the Scottish FA's head of referee development, Donald McVicar, was quick to deny the allegations.

"What Gus said was not true. Gus MacPherson was not even mentioned, nor was his face up on any screen," said McVicar.

"What we do is look at video clips and DVDs and look at the good, bad and ugly part of the game to see what we want to improve upon.

"One of the clips we used was of a tackle in a Scottish Cup game (between Rangers and Hibs) and how the two managers, Walter Smith and Mixu Paatelainen, had got involved as a result of that.

"We were looking at the repercussions of the tackle.

"We were not specifically looking at managers and that was the only time we talked about them - and Gus MacPherson wasn't one of them."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...ren/7554548.stm

[blueben_d 40]

bullshit, how can he claim that decision is correct. He should never referee again.

[Boab 73]

Shocking decision.

[the goal machine 7,801]

It was never a penalty. Hesselink put his hand on Haining first. The first claim wasn't either. He had no chance of getting the ball.

[Andy 69]

wow. never a penalty

[Davy 68]

Same old Celtc, always cheating.

[blueben_d 40]

if he really thinks that's a pen it only goes to prove how green tinted his glasses are, even celtic fans admit it wasn't a pen.

[GersDude90 1]

Thats shocking. How can anyone watch that again and say it was a definate pen? I've not heard a single person say that it was a pen, and that from rangers fans, celtic fans, clyde fans etc.

[CooperSF 5,792]

Shocking

Same old....

[cuellar4life 0]

Same old Celtc, always cheating.

funny how it was the ref who was cheating mate.

Even jvoh was shocked ffs, he didn't even claim for a penalty.

[davie1689 1]

did we really expect anything else?

[CanadianGer 1]

Well, if I was on a cushy part time job which just agreed to up my hourly rate to GBP533.33 an hour and then was given the chance to review whether I should be allowed to stay in my post, I'd probably say I was the shit as well.

The difference is of course that in the real world of professionalism, people don't get to review their own performance - other more senior people hold them to a higher standard. Just another thing wrong with Scottish football.