Well manager demands talks after lack of clarity over ‘goal’

MOTHERWELL manager Stuart Kettlewell has called for serious talks between match officials and clubs after failing to get the clarity he wanted over their disallowed goal against Aberdeen.

The club issued a statement in the wake of their 1-0 defeat against the Dons on March 16, during which Lennon Miller had a goal disallowed following a VAR review after the ball appeared to brush against Theo Bair’s arm on the way to the midfielder.

The feeling of injustice was compounded by the fact Ross County scored against Motherwell earlier in the season despite Victor Loturi handling in the build-up, and the fact that there was no VAR check when the ball hit Graeme Shinnie’s arm in the Aberdeen box late in the game.

The explanation Motherwell received was that Bair’s handball was deemed deliberate while the others were not but the club stated that inconsistency over decisions, lengthy VAR interventions and lack of clarity over decisions were seriously impacting fans’ enjoyment of matches.

There has been no contact from the Scottish Football Association since the statement.

Kettlewell said: “There will be a lot of supporters that still wonder why one or two decisions were given.

“I think people believe we do that as a football club just to be argumentative and it’s just this quest against match officials. It’s really not.

“We thought long and hard about our actions and it was a football club decision.

“We felt the statement was measured and transparent and also, it related to the rules of the game.

“There was initial contact (with the SFA) before our statement but there’s not been any further contact off the back of our statement.”