Livid Lee Johnston lashed out at Steven McLean – but the Hibs boss insisted Scottish refs deserve more dosh.
The Easter Road gaffer was fuming at Elie Youan’s controversial red card against Celtic, as his 10 men failed to hang on to their shock lead before falling to a 3-1 defeat to the champs. Johnston hit out at the sending off call – and he also blasted the officials for getting penalty decisions for and against his side wrong as well. The Leith manager believes Scottish football needs to raise the standards of refs in general – and they need more cash to go full time.
Johnston said: "I'm a bit of a lobbyist to give refs more money because I think the league should be employing professional referees. It's a big European league. It's important, there's a lot of money at stake, European places at stake. You've got to have the standard to match and that means full-time referees and working day in, day out with each other, doing your analysis on teams and players.
“It's working better as a team. it's communicating better in the technical areas or on the microphones to each other. I was really proud of the players, it's as difficult a game as you'll get. We were outstanding in both halves given the circumstances.
"You have to point fingers at the referee's performance. How on earth can it be a sending-off for Elie Youan? Elie has his back to goal, doesn't know where Cameron Carter-Vickers is, and he's been outmuscled. Maybe a foul, maybe not. It's definitely not a yellow card and this is the problem with VAR, it has to be clear and obvious.
"It was just a really poor performance. It bugs me. Clubs like Hibs need all teams to be on point. We were, but they weren't.
"There are conversations going on all the way through the game. It's just disappointing because I thought we were game, we were good, nullified their threats and played as much as we could after the red card.
"We still had box entries, we got a bit of luck. I'm not sure either penalty should have been given because if that's the case I want to see a penalty given almost every box entry. He was very keen to look for any contact and that's got to be consistent. You'd be giving 100 penalties every match day if both of those penalties were penalties.
"If the refs were training full time they would understand that these things aren't fouls, and that's where VAR annoys me because of the grey areas – it's got to be clear and obvious to make the decisions.”
Celtic had a late penalty scrubbed by VAR as well and Johnston said: "The overturned penalty was ridiculous. Everybody could see that it was a good save and Abada fell over his own feet.
“It's just frustrating because I don't think the lads deserve what happened to them today but I will take a lot from the character and spirit that we're building now in the club."
Johnston’s miserable afternoon was complete when he was also booked – which means he faces a dugout ban. But he said: "I was shown a yellow card because a Hibs staff member had apparently thrown another ball onto the pitch for whatever reason which isn't something I advocate or want to do.
"There's an element of game management but that's not it. Apparently they didn't know who it was so the manager takes responsibility for the technical area so I got booked.
"Whoever it was will be paying two weeks' wages! What can we take from it? The referees will read the papers and whisper to their wives and partners about what I am and what I'm not.
"But I don't want to take away from the character of the players.”
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