Mackay sees red over refs’ inconsistency
Malky Mackay is demanding greater consistency from officialdom after seeing Aberdeen’s Leighton Clarkson escape a red card for a “leg-breaker” in Dingwall.
The former Scottish FA performance director is hoping the compliance officer Andrew Phillips acts as he did against Ross County in retrospectively banning Jack Baldwin and Ross Callachan for an Old Firm league and cup double-header.
Mackay stressed he had no malice towards Aberdeen or the booked Clarkson, but feels County have been harshly treated with Rangers’ James Sands also escaping what many felt was a red in the defeat of County at Ibrox.
Mackay said: “I think we got our just rewards because nobody deserved to lose that game.
“I was delighted with our centre backs. I know that Jim has changed his squad around and I think we handled the quality he has brought in really well.
“Our two centre backs kept Bojan Miovski incredibly quiet.
“We matched them all over the pitch and it was a clean game apart from the challenge in the 56th minute, which for me was a red card.
“I’ve watched it back and for me, the tackle by Leighton Clarkson on Callum Johnson was a leg breaker.
“I’ve spoken to the referee to let him know that I will be looking to see what the compliance officer does.
“We’ve come off the back of a couple of difficult ones in terms of the compliance side of the game, with our two players who were cited and retrospectively sent off.
“Then at Ibrox, we had a decision not to have had a man (James Sands) sent off against us.
“Today there’s another one that’s glaring.
“I’m just looking for consistency. “We’ve had players suspended for the Celtic game on Wednesday night and Ibrox and then I look at what happened at Ibrox and I look at what happened today.
“Aberdeen had a good hard go and the referee was good, but that was a really poor challenge.
“If they had gone to 10 men after 56 minutes, it would have changed the dynamic of the game.”