SEEING RED

Hughes claims ref ‘guessed’ penalty award that led to dismissal of Pars skipper Dorrans

DUNFERMLINE manager John Hughes was unable to hide his frustration at the award of Hamilton’s match-winning penalty as he accused referee David Munro of guessing and making it up.

Hughes claimed Hamilton deserved the three points in this hard-fought encounter of two teams who have toiled in the Championship this season.

But he was adamant the official had the biggest say in the outcome of this game when he pointed to the spot on the hour-mark as he penalised Dunfermline captain Graham Dorrans for handball.

Having cleared a Mihai Popescu header expertly off the goal-line moments earlier, from the resultant corner Dorrans was once again called into action on the line as he blocked Lewis Smith’s goalbound effort.

Munro reckoned he had done so with his arm, pointed to the spot and administered a red card to Dorrans for denying a goalscoring opportunity.

David Moyo calmly dispatched the penalty and Hamilton held out for three precious points as they ended a six-game winless streak.

Hughes, however, insisted the official called it wrong — after studying the club’s match footage. He said: ‘To lose it in that manner was frustrating. I went to the referee and he said it was handball. He’s let himself down, there.

‘The ball hit Graham on his chest and the referee said it was handball — so I don’t know what he is looking at. I get the chance to look at it. My video guys are there. But it’s not even close.

‘For the referee to give a penalty for that and say it hit his hand, he must have been guessing. He’s guessing; he’s miles off it.

‘You are expecting better than that. You have to get that right.

‘I spoke to him and he said: “You’ve had the opportunity to look at it”. I said: “Okay, but what were you looking at, thinking it was a handball? You’re making it up”.

‘But I am honest enough to say that Hamilton were the better team and we have a lot of work ahead of us.’

Asked if the club will appeal the red card, Hughes said: ‘I’m quite sure the club will have a look at it and we’ll have to go through the proper processes.’

The deadlock came close to being broken after 38 minutes when Dunfermline were denied the opener by the frame of the goal.

When the ball broke to Dorrans 25 yards out, he let fly with a powerful drive which deflected off a Hamilton defender and looped over the head of goalkeeper Joe Hilton and crashed against the bar.

Hamilton came close to scoring after 59 minutes when Popescu’s powerful header from a Reegan Mimnaugh corner was blocked on the goal-line by Dorrans, who headed it out for another corner.

From that one, Popescu saw another header blocked on the line and when Smith followed up, his effort was stopped by the arm of Dorrans. Referee Munro pointed to the spot and flashed a red card at the Dunfermline skipper.

Moyo made no mistake with the penalty kick as he sent Owain Fon Williams the wrong way.

Kieran MacDonald came close to adding a second as he flashed a low drive across the face of goal and narrowly wide.

Popescu and McCann were both booked after the defender thundered into a challenge on the attacker and then shouted something at him after the tackle, which promoted a reaction from McCann. After some pushing and shoving involving a few players, Munro opted to show a yellow to the duo and restore calm.

Hamilton climbed to sixth in the Championship and head coach Stuart Taylor said: ‘We played really well and got the result and a clean sheet. All the lads put a shift in.

‘I asked them to be relentless and they were. I’m over the moon for everyone to get the three points.’