Ref gave me card in error
Declan Gallagher walked a red- card tightrope against Serbia but revealed Spanish ref Antonio Mateu Lahoz admitted he was WRONG to book him.
The Scotland centreback was cautioned in the first half of the play- off win after jumping for a challenge with striker Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Wh i s t l e r La h oz inexplicably produced a yellow for the Motherwell defender, leaving him on edge for the rest of the tie.
Gallagher produced an exemplary display as Steve Clarke’s side won a penalty shoot- out to qualify for Euro 2020.
But he says the ref told him at half-time that he had made a mistake by booking him.
The Scot said: “I had to be able to get touch-tight to Mitrovic while not
MITROVIC committing daft fouls. The ref admitted at half-time that he’d made an error.
“He had obviously watched it back.
“I’ve never experienced that before – a ref actually telling me he was wrong!
“So when he penalised me for another header later on – which I also thought I won fairly – he just gave me a talking to.
“I got a bit of leeway from him after that but it was hard.
“At half- time I knew there were another 45 minutes to play and I was on a yellow. Then it went to extra-time too.
“But the boys around me helped massively.”
Fulham hitman Mitrovic was singled out as a huge danger but Gal lagher, Scott McTominay and Kieran Tierney handled him brilliantly.
The Motherwell skipper said: “I really enjoyed it against Mitrovic.
“He’s a strong boy and I prefer a physical battle to having a busy striker running about.”