Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell says he's baffled by referee Nick Walsh's call to make difference decisions on two 'identical' penalty claims for Dundee United in today's defeat.
The Steelmen saw United come back from Kevin van Veen's first half opener, to net twice in eight minutes midway through the second half through a Illmari Niskanen strike and a Jamie McGrath penalty in the 2-1 win.
But there was plenty of controversy as striker Steven Fletcher was brought down in the box by Motherwell keeper Liam Kelly for the decisive penalty and was then booked for simulation in a carbon copy incident in stoppage time.
Both incidents went to VAR and both came back with different outcomes, which also sided with the referee's original decisions.
And that has left Kettlewell once again calling for consistency from officials and the technology.
The bemused boss said: "I'm a little bit frustrated. I've watched back the penalty incident. We have said that one is a penalty, so if we look at specific decisions in the game - and I'm not making excuses - I am a little bit baffled why Steven Fletcher gets booked for the second one right at the end of the game.
"If you watch them back - and we'll all see them on the highlights - they are identical.
"They are exactly the same and in one there's a penalty given and in the other there's a yellow card given [for simulation].
"I don't really understand that.
"It's either two penalties or it's two yellow cards because to my mind, and I'll stand corrected if I'm wrong, both were identical.
"So we are going back to this level of consistency.
"Liam doesn't feel the first one is a penalty. He is disappointed that the penalty was given.
"Would we be screaming for it? We probably would. We are all competitors and we all want decisions.
"But I'm just looking at how identical the situations are, but it is two different outcomes.
"Nothing is going to change it but I'm always looking to have that level of consistency so when I look at a decision, if it goes to VAR, we are going to get the same outcome each time - for better or for worse.
"I am consistent with this because I spoke about it with an offside decision for [Rangers striker] Fashion Sakala and I said, that's fine as long as if it happens again it is the same decision that is made.
"But, when we strip it all back, I think we could have done better being 1-0 up today and we need to take ownership for that."
Motherwell had plenty of opportunities to extend their advantage early in the second half and van Veen also had an effort ruled out for offside.
Their missed opportunities came back to bite them as United grabbed a vital victory that mobved them off the foot of the Premiership.
The result leaves Motherwell still in eighth place in the table and not safe yet in their bid to beat the drop, but Kettlewell felt his side were "architects of their own downfall" at times.
He added: ""We are disappointed after getting our nose in front, probably being 1-0 up without playing particularly well.
"I thought we started the second half well enough. We had plenty of chances in the game, plenty of opportunities but I felt between the two penalty boxes we were a bit lethargic. I didn't think we had as much energy as we've had as late.
"We didn't feel as if we got close enough to our opponent as we could have.
"When you are 1-0 up and you start the second half well, I genuinely expect us to win the game.
"I felt we were the architects of our own downfall in stages, just by being loose in possession and making poor choices.
"That gave Dundee United a little bit of belief and momentum, and they capitalised on it with a couple of goals."
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