MOTHERWELL manager Stephen Robinson tonight claimed that Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos had "conned" referee Craig Thomson into awarding a yellow card that led to Carl McHugh being sent off.
Robinson described the booking that McHugh received from Thomson following a challenge on Morelos in the first-half at Ibrox earlier today as "embarrassing" and "a disgrace".
He was furious when the Fir Park midfielder received another caution for handling an Andy Halliday shot a few minutes later and was immediately red carded by the match official.
The Northern Irishman also accused fourth official Craig Napier, who told Thomson to send him off for arguing with Rangers assistant Gary McAllister and technical coach Tom Culshaw, of being "out of his depth".
“I thought it was a penalty," he said following a Ladbrokes Premiership game that Motherwell lost 7-1.
"The letter of the law suggests that he needs to be sent off. But the first booking is a disgrace. It’s embarrassing. And I have to say referees are getting conned by the same people.
"He has to send him off after he has booked him, but he shouldn’t have booked him. Having said that, it certainly wasn’t the reason we went on and lost six goals.
"I think a lot of people are looking for excuses today. I am certainly not going to hide behind a referee. We can do so much better than we did defensively. It was hard to take for 45 minutes.”
Asked about the altercation with McAllister and Culshaw, he said: “Listen, members of their staff came up to voice their opinion, that was it. I was the only one who got sent to the stand.
"There is a young boy who is out of his depth as a fourth official. He obviously can’t deal with it. That was it.
"Steven (Rangers manager Gerrard) even said ‘don’t worry about it, I’ll sort it out’. He told his staff to sit back down again. I didn’t think it was a major incident.”
Asked about Morelos specifically, he said: “I am not going to talk about individual players. Certain players get away with certain things every week.
"It wasn’t a free-kick in the first place, it certainly wasn’t a yellow card. He was given the yellow card for continual fouling. But that wasn’t a foul. So work that one out.”
Yous was robbed?
I’m not going to use the referee as an excuse. There is a manner to get beat. It is so disappointing to watch that performance in the second-half. We looked to have an excuse in the bag after that happened. I will make no bones about it, the decision changes a big aspect of the game. But the manner we got beaten in was really disappointing. We certainly can’t blame the referee for four or five of the goals we let in. It was woeful defending. People have to look long and hard at themselves after that.”
Penalty?
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