St Johnstone are likely to appeal Murray Davidson’s red card against Hibs – as Perth boss Callum Davidson hit out at the refereeing inconsistency that cost his team in their 1-0 defeat to Hibs.
Saints went down to a last minute Josh Campbell goal having played for more than half-an-hour with 10 men.
Murray Davidson was sent off by Euan Anderson for a late sliding tackle on Ryan Porteous that even his opposite number Lee Johnson thought wasn’t worthy of a dismissal.
And the salt in the wound for Callum Davidson was that Marijan Cabraja stayed on the pitch when making a similar (perhaps worse) challenge on Ryan McGowan.
“I’m just looking for consistency in decisions,” said the Saints manager.
“That’s the biggest thing for me.
“There are two massive talking points in the game. The Murray Davidson sending off … whether it was or not is debatable.
“You come to that second tackle, to me it’s the exact same tackle, there is no difference at all, and he gives him a yellow.
“We concede the goal in the 90th minute due to those decisions. It’s really hard to take.
“I think every time we played Hibs last season we got decisions as well. It’s very hard to take.”
Replays confirmed what he thought
He added: “I’ve seen them back.
“They are either both a yellow or both a red.
“I said to Murray: ‘You can’t give him opportunities to make a decision’. That’s one thing from my players.
“I’m annoyed we’ve had three sending offs so far this season. But you’ve got to have consistency.
“The officials talked about it.
“I said: ‘Why did you not talk about his tackle?’ It’s dead simple. Just talk about it.
“I’m gutted for the players. We didn’t play as well on the ball as we could but as a unit we were very good and defended well.
“It’s a tough game against Hibs, they’ve spent a lot of money.”
VAR to the rescue
Will VAR help?
“I have no idea,” said Davidson.
“People still have to make a decision with VAR.”
On the prospect of an imminent appeal, Davidson said: “I think so. It depends if I can appeal it on grounds of another tackle in the same game.
“I’ll have a look at it. Murray is an important player for us.”
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