Mellon can’t get a handle on refs’ spot kick calls
Dundee United boss Micky Mellon admitted he was bewildered at the decision to deny his side a stonewall penalty – after Lawrence S hank land was punished for the same offence in their 5- 1 midweek hammering from St Mirren.
Mellon couldn’t believe his eyes at the 75th minute flashpoint when Hibs full- back Josh Doig scooped the ball away to safety inside the box under pressure from Shankland.
And Mellon, who watched John Beaton award Saints a spot kick for Shankland’s handball in midweek, reckons yesterday’s fourth official failed on his word in this Tayside tussle.
Mellon said: “I try to be dead honest.
“If we’re going to get the type of medicine that we got during the week when we got a penalty against us for Lawrence Shankland’s handball, then there has to be consistency in tight games like this one.
“You need that to have a chance of getting results.
“You just want to be judged fairly.
“We spoke to John (Beat on ), the fourth official, who was the referee on Wednesday night and gave the penalty.
“We said we wanted the same consistency.
“John told us on Wednesday if there was a handball inside the box then it’s a penalty.
“But it just didn’ t happen here.
“The linesman was looking right at it. He can’t say he was watching the line and not the ball – that one which they always give you.
“You never get an explanation. Now we have to deal with getting the group back together and the confusion of what is actually a penalty.
“But after Wednesday night, I just thought that if the ball hits your hand it’s a penalty – no matter what speed it’s going at – because it must have been going at 50mph when it hit Lawrence’s hand.”
United are on a wretched run of form with no wins in their last seven games which has seen them drop down to seventh place in the Premiership.
But their manager is convinced the Tangerines will return to winning ways to inject fresh life into their top-six bid.
Mellon added: “It’s really disappointing to lose another goal from a set- play and for the second goal we got turned over – I don’t think we deserved that at that stage in the game.
“I don’t like losing any game so it doesn’t matter if we had just won our last seven games.
“But I’ve got to take my emotion out of that and help my group of players move forward.
“We certainly have the players who know that at some stage it will all click and we’ll be fine.”