Ross Callachan believes his St Johnstone debut would have been so much better had Willie Collum been a player before becoming a referee.
The midfielder, who had replaced Liam Craig at half-time to make his first appearance for Saints since joining from Hearts last month, found himself one-on-one with Dons goalie Joe Lewis with the score still at 1-0 to the Perth men.
Callachan tried to stay honest and attempted to leap over the keeper rather than leave a trailing leg in an attempt to get a penalty.
Despite his evasive action, he claims he was still caught by Lewis and would have had a spotkick had ref Collum been an ex-player.
Callachan said: “I have tried to stay on my feet.
“Because I have been going at a quick pace he has clipped me and it is hard to stay on your feet when you are going that fast.
“I’m quite an honest player so I try to stay up but for me it’s a penalty.
“Willie (Collum) said there was not enough contact…for it to be a penalty – that’s what he said to me.
“But I gave my case, that when you’re going at that pace and you do get clipped, no matter how much contact there is it’s really hard to stay on your feet.
“Willie was not a football player so he won’t understand that but that’s the thing.
“That’s the difference between being a player and being a referee.
“We could have gone 2-0 up at a big stage of the game. That would have changed it in our favour.”
