Martindale fury as VAR denies his Lions a victory
Livingston boss Davie Martindale insists referee Craig Napier and VAR made two huge blunders as his team were denied a rare victory at Tynecastle following Josh Ginnelly’s last-gasp equaliser.
Martindale is adamant that the goal should not have stood after Hearts sub Alan Forrest appeared to handle the ball in the build up.
There was also a good case for a foul on Joel Nouble in the same phase of play.
The Lions had led through Stephen Kelly’s fine 55th minute strike and should have doubled their lead 13 minutes from time when Sean Kelly had a penalty saved by Craig Gordon.
The spot kick came about after VAR ruled that Kyle Rowles, who was shown a red card, pulled on Nouble’s jersey as the striker got his shot away.
Martindale was also furious that the referee was not asked to go and review footage of Alex Cochrane’s robust challenge on Nicky Devlin late in the game, claiming the defender should also have been sent packing.
Martindale said: “Big Joel has the ball and I think there is an infringement on him, to be honest.
“He’s honest and he stays on his feet so I can kind of see why it wasn’t given.
“If you don’t go down you have kind of chosen the path you’re going down at that point. The ball drops to Michael Smith, who plays a fantastic ball to Alan Forrest, who handballs it in that phase of play.
“Apparently it was accidental, let’s just say I don’t think it was.
“It’s a great strike from Ginnelly, so fair play to the kid.
“I think it should be pulled back and the goal shouldn’t be given.
“I was surprised we got the penalty because I didn’t see it, but big Joel said it was.
“We’ve got to score. If we go 2-0 up the game is done. But they get a lift.”
Martindale was left stunned that Hearts were not reduced to nine men following Cochrane’s challenge.
He added: “We had a couple of half-chances so I’m disappointed to be leaving Tynecastle with a point.
“But why the referee hasn’t been called over to the monitor on a couple of occasions, I don’t know.
“The challenge on Nicky from Cochrane, how he doesn’t get asked to look at it on the monitor I’ll never know.
“I am actually getting to the stage where I don’t know how the game is being reffed.
“If it’s not our foul then surely it’s our throw because you assume he got the ball. We never got the throw.
“So what happened? For me that was wrong today.”