SPFL officials well aware decisions will be in spotlight with history on the line

when things will be said in the heat of the moment.

“Perhaps on reflection people wish they hadn’t said or wouldn’t have said things if they had given themselves a second or two more to think about it.

“They tend to be the odd exception, the compliance officer probably knows better than I what sort of reports she is seeing on a week-to-week, month-to-month basis.

“But managers being sent off or those sort of things seem to me to be of a minority and the story kind of died a little bit in the week afterwards when Michael realised that he maybe shouldn’t have said what he said.

“You would have to ask the fourth official [what he said] to be honest. I feel sorry for Nick Walsh because it was my decision resulting in him having a miserable end to the match.”

Clancy kicks off his refereeing season with a Tayside derby at Tannadice Park when newly promoted Dundee United welcome St Johnstone.

The match will of course lack a degree of atmosphere, with matches taking place behind closed doors, but Clancy believes this won’t affect his job too much.

He added: “From a refereeing perspective there shouldn’t be too much difference from the sense that we will still be applying the laws of the game in exactly the same way.

“I would like to hope it won’t change the decision making. You are right though in a big game crowd noise, you know you’re under pressure, you know every decision is being carefully scrutinised.

“It certainly keeps your concentration and your focus up and I suppose maybe a challenge for referees in empty stadiums will just be making sure that because not very much seems to be happening don’t get lulled into some sort of false sense of security.

“Not having the crowd probably should make things easier because you don’t feel as though every decision is constantly being booed or criticised. But I think it will just be important for myself and the rest of the guys even though there’s no crowd there that we are still bringing the same level of performance.”