HIBS BOSS: REF WILL BE SORRY FOR BAD CALL
FROM BACK PAGE look weak and will undermine his authority in future games, especially involving Rangers.
Heckingbottom said: “He shouldn’t be doing it. It was foolish. I think it was an error of judgment.
“I don’t know what the leadership is and what the guidelines are but it’s not going to help. I can guarantee that.
“Why was it that specific decision? What about every other decision they get wrong? They’re going to get them wrong and that’s my point.
“It’s just another highlight being put on referees for the wrong reasons.
“Referees try their best, they work hard, they are honest and they are going to make mistakes. Get on with it.
“But what they have to do is get stronger guidelines and better direction in how they handle those things – how they handle matchdays and how they handle decision-making.
“And they should certainly not being influenced by what is being said about them or each other. It’s a really bad decision.”
McLean’s olive branch may have been a wellintentioned attempt to improve communication and understanding between managers and officials in a turbulent year when refs have taken heavy criticism.
But Heckingbottom reckons it could have an opposite effect and open a can of worms of conspiracy theories and accusations of bias from a football community always quick to cry foul.
He added: “That’s another thing that’s going to be thrown at them now. I cannot believe he has done it, for lots of reasons.
“Where does it stop? Because I guarantee you there will be another 20 or 30 wrong calls and probably another 100 decisions in every game that are contentious.
“Is it just the fact a goal came from that one? What about the goals that could have come from other calls?
“It’s crazy. They need to look at that and they need to be really strong about it.
“Listen, if it was a quiet word on the day when you bump into each other in the corridor and he said, ‘Steven I got that one wrong’ then we all make mistakes.
“But to phone someone up? I can’t get my head around it.
“It is one little moment in the game. People say they even themselves out, and yeah, they might.
“But if that’s what you’re going to do you’d spend 90 days talking about a 90 minute game for all the little decisions that get given.”