St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright has accused his Dundee United counterpart Jackie McNamara of disrespect after both managers were sent to the stands during a heated Tayside derby.
Saints’ 1-0 victory moved the Perth men four ahead of Hibs in the race for a top six finish with a game in hand, and Wright was delighted to see his team emerge from Tannadice with all three points.
But it turned out to be an ill-tempered second half in which referee Crawford Allan decided to take action against the key men in both dugouts.
Asked if the spat, which resulted in both bosses being sent off, had been heat of the moment stuff, Wright told Courier Sport: “What it is is respect.
“I’ve been brought up to respect people in all walks of life but when someone disrespects your team.maybe I should not have reacted but I’m quite glad I did because he (McNamara) shouldn’t be making comments about my team and my players.
“I’ll take my punishment and move on. I’m not going into detail, but he was disrespectful to my team and my players, and he said something in the first half as well.
“But we’ve got three points and that’s all that matters. I’m delighted with the three points it was a good all-round performance.
“We played football when we had to, we dug in deep when we had to and we showed real character.”
The sparks flew after a number of controversial incidents which the home side felt went against them, particularly one where Ryan Gauld seemed to be clipped as he raced through.
“They can argue that the advantage was played but how can they play advantage when Gauldy is off balance,” United number two Simon Donnelly said. “But you could argue about every decision.
“We had a penalty appeal and the explanation was shoulder to shoulder, but it didn’t look like that to me. But it’s not been given so we can’t argue about it.”
Next up for United is a home game against St Mirren, and Donnelly has tipped the Tangerines to respond well.
“Bouncing back is massive and I’m sure we will,” he said.
“We came into the game full of confidence, scoring plenty of goals and looking dangerous. We had two or three chances to get ourselves in front tonight but obviously it was not to be.”