St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright has put his faith in Dave Mackay’s controversial red card being wiped out before it goes to appeal.
Saints confirmed they will be challenging the ordering off, and subsequent ban, that the Perth captain was given against Celtic on Wednesday night.
John Beaton awarded a penalty against Mackay when Derk Boerrigter went down in the box.
Wright spoke with the referee after the match, which Saints lost 3-0.
Beaton hadn’t seen the incident again on television at that time but, now that he will have done, the McDiarmid Park boss is hoping he will change his mind before Mackay has to go to Hampden Park for his SFA hearing next week.
“We’ve put Dave’s appeal in and we’ll see what happens,” he said.
“We think we’ve got a good case on the basis that the player didn’t go down where there was contact, if there was any.
“I spoke to John Beaton afterwards and it was all amicable. He put his points over and so did I. John hadn’t seen it again but he said he’ll look at it.
“In fairness to him, I don’t think he’s got a clear view. Now he’ll have the chance to look at it and I’d hope he’ll change his mind and the appeal will be a formality. Now the process will have to take its course.”
Mackay did appear to make some contact with Boerrigter, but his fall was a delayed one.
And Wright takes issue with the school of thought that any touch on a striker entitles him to go down and get a penalty.
“That isn’t right,” he said. “By saying that, any contact anywhere on the pitch is automatically a foul. That’s not what the rules say.
“I’ve said my opinion on the whole thing and we’ll now have to wait and see what the outcome of the appeal is.”
Meanwhile, Wright is standing by his view of Saints overall performance in the game being a very good one.
But he is stressing to his players that the individual errors which resulted in goals number one and three have to stop.
The Northern Irishman stressed: “We have control of the first goal and it was disappointing from our point of view.
“We caused our own downfall to start with. We were very comfortable and although Celtic had possession in the first 25 minutes they didn’t trouble Alan Mannus,” said Wright.
“In the second half we were the ones in the ascendancy, without really threatening.
“The first incident which changed the game was our fault. We have made too many individual mistakes that have cost us goals.
“I think we’ve given four goals away cheaply so far this season and we have to make sure we’re better individually. Sometimes that happens early in the season so we need to eradicate it.”
Wright singled out Chris Millar as his man of the match for both sides.
“Chris Millar was head and shoulders above everyone else on the pitch,” he said. “His energy and drive in breaking up the play and building for us was excellent.
“Midge was asked to do a role and he does it brilliantly. He doesn’t let people settle, he’s in around them and he forces people to make mistakes.
“When he first came here he was a right-sided midfielder but we’ve moved him around and this is the position I think he really excels in. He’s very versatile.”
Adam Morgan also impressed, and is being considered for a start at Hamilton Accies on Saturday.
There could also be other changes, as Wright continues to shuffle his pack.
Wright couldn’t fail to be impressed by Hamilton’s midweek win against St Mirren.
Alex Neil’s men have given notice that they won’t be Premiership cannon fodder.
Wright isn’t a fan of artificial pitches, and his team selection may be influenced by it, but he knows his team can perform well on Hamilton’s.
The Perth men ran out comfortable 3-0 winners in the League Cup early last season, when many people were predicting a cup upset.
Wright said: “We played Hamilton there last season and did well, so we’ll need a similar style of performance this weekend.”