Dundee United boss Csaba Laszlo defended captain Willo Flood after the Irishman lost his discipline following his sending-off at Tannadice last night.
Flood pushed Livingston player Shaun Byrne to earn first a second yellow card then a red late on as the Tangerines blew a 2-1 lead in the home leg of their Premiership play-off semi-final.
A catalogue of defensive disasters allowed Livi to nick a 3-2 advantage going into the return match at the Tony Macoroni Arena on Friday.
One man who won’t be able to do anything to influence United’s promotion fading chances is Flood as he will be banned but Laszlo refused to hammer his skipper despite the player shouting at a TV camera amid a verbal volley as he left the pitch.
Laszlo, who had it confirmed pre-match by chairman Mike Martin that he will be in charge next season even if United crash out of the play-offs, said: “It is very painful because Willo is a very good captain and also in the game he showed attitude.
“I will have to watch the video again.
“In the first half, I thought Livingston should have had a red card for a foul (by Declan Gallagher) on Sam Stanton from the side. He couldn’t even jump up and it could have been very serious injury.
“It was a small push from Willo but I protect him. He was frustrated but players and humans.
“He didn’t hurt anybody. It was just frustration.”
The news got worse for United with Laszlo suggesting that central defender Bilel Mohsni will also sit the second leg out after hurting his groin.
The Hungarian added: “Maybe also Bilel will be out because he had a groin injury and in the short time between the games I don’t think he will recover.”
Laszlo, like everyone else, could hardly believe United’s collapse after they appeared destined to take a lead to West Lothian.
He said: “This kind of loss is certainly the most painful.
“It is my opinion that for 80 minutes we controlled the game.
“There were individual mistakes and you have to be cleverer.
“(Stewart) Murdoch tried to step out when he didn’t have to but I want to protect the players because they have had a very difficult season and there was also a very short time between the Dunfermline game and this one.
“We had to score the third goal in the second half and came close. But we didn’t and we made mistakes.
“So we are down by one goal and hopefully we can do better at Livingston.
“It is not nice to lose and to see the fans angry.
“It has been a very long and hard season but we will try to do our best.
“We don’t have too much time to think about it. We will try to take this chance and if we score one goal it is level.”
