McCann rages as Dundee pay the penalty
FUMING Neil McCann insisted his Dundee side were ‘robbed’ as he launched a scathing attack on under-fire referee Alan Muir for his controversial call to deny them a last-gasp penalty.
The Dens Park manager could not contain his anger after watching Muir choose not to award the Dark Blues an injury-time spot-kick to cancel out Craig Tanner’s ultimately decisive 33rd-minute winner for Stephen Robinson’s visitors.
It all exploded when Motherwell centre-back Cedric Kipre appeared to get both his hands in the way of A-Jay Leitch-Smith’s hooked shot while the hosts desperately chased an equaliser which their overall play probably merited.
And McCann, whose side slipped into ninth place in the table, refused to hold back as he confronted Muir afterwards.
‘It was a stonewall penalty,’ claimed the Dundee boss. ‘It’s difficult for a coach or a manager to hold that kind of anger in.
‘I was quite controlled at the side of the pitch but I’ve gone in to ask Alan (Muir) why it wasn’t a penalty.
‘He said he spoke to Douglas Ross, the assistant referee, and he said it did strike the arm but his arm was in against his body.
‘That’s not the case. I’ve seen it and he’s come out like a keeper.
‘It’s clearly struck him in the arm. Now, if he’s saying it hit him on the arm, why’s it not a penalty? How do you swallow that one? For me, it’s very poor officiating.
‘It makes me so angry because that would have given us an opportunity to get the equaliser and maybe even another one because we showed against Partick the week before we don’t need a lot of time to get a goal.
‘I feel we’ve been robbed of an opportunity to get a result.
‘I thought we dominated the match and were the only team looking to win the match.’
This is fast becoming a happy hunting ground for Motherwell. Having won here just a fortnight ago in the Scottish Cup, they returned to Dens on league duty and duly piled yet more misery on their hosts.
Proceedings were not exactly inspiring, but the Lanarkshire side will have left with a sense of satisfaction as they prepare for a challenging week involving a Premiership match against Aberdeen on Wednesday before a Scottish Cup quarter-final against Hearts next Sunday.
The hosts threatened first when Josh Meekings’ long throw-in was met by Steven Caulker, the former Liverpool and England defender, whose header from close range was comfortably held by visiting goalkeeper Trevor Carson.
Motherwell were not quite free-flowing but did expertly capitalise on the solitary shot they had on goal all afternoon.
It came in the most simple fashion in 33 minutes when they took the lead against a static back-four.
Chris Cadden supplied Curtis Main, whose low cross was perfect for Tanner. He breezed in at the back post to calmly tap home from just a few yards, making it four goals for the striker in as many games this season against yesterday’s opponents.
With hopes of still reaching the top six, Dundee began brightly after the break with winger Roarie Deacon probing constantly.
Within five minutes of the restart, Sofien Moussa knocked down Glen Kamara’s cross, but Dundee centre-half Genseric Kusunga showed all the hallmarks of a defender as he succeeded only in thrashing his effort high over the bar from ten yards.
McCann’s side continued to pose a threat and captain Cammy Kerr and Kamara both had shots blocked as the Motherwell defence displayed the sort of guts they have earned a reputation for under Robinson, to hold on to their narrow lead.
They survived an almighty fright in injury-time.
Substitute Leitch-Smith’s shot appeared to be handled by 21-year-old Frenchman Kipre, but Muir waved away their appeals to leave them justifiably livid while Robinson hailed his side’s spirit.
‘We’ve got individuals who can win games, but here our character and resilience won it for us,’ said Robinson.
‘If I were a Motherwell fan going back down the road having seen those players throwing themselves to the ground and putting their bodies on the line to win, I’d be very happy.
‘We can play a lot better than that on the ball.
‘But when you have games like that you have to dig deep, so I give them top marks for that side of things.’