Former top ref Steve Conroy reckons Steven McLean has nowhere to hide after booking the wrong player in Celtic's clash with Raith Rovers on Sunday.
But he says the blame doesn't all fall on the man in the middle with "systemic failure" on show during the Scottish Cup tie.
Conroy was at the heart of a handful of controversial decisions in the Hoops' 4-0 victory, firstly failing to award Raith a penalty for handball on Cameron Carter-Vickers – with pundits unanimously agreeing it should have been a spot-kick.
But the most bizarre incident came late on when Raith defender Mackie handled the ball and McLean did point to the spot.
The left-back was already on a booking and should have been given his marching orders, but instead Ross Matthews was flashed a yellow card before Nir Bitton took the kick.
Conroy, a former Grade 1 whistler, remembers a similar incident in 2010 when St Johnstone's Steven Anderson was shown two yellow cards against Dundee United but wasn't sent off by Brian Winter.
And he reckons in both cases it was a case of poor admin by the man in the middle.
Conroy told the Get Involved Referee podcast, via the Scottish Daily Express: "It's a big mistake and it's not one that people at his level should not be making.
"There is no way of couching it. He is not the first and he won't be the last but that was a mistake on his part.
"I don't know what the outcome will be from the powers that be, but that was a mistake unfortunately.
"I don't know what Steven normally does, but there are no hard and fast rules about how you keep your admin in a game.
"I can admit that I sent off a player for his first yellow in a game and that was down to my bad admin.
"Whatever has happened there he will have to review how he handles his admin in the future. But there should be more than just Steven keeping an eye on that situation.
"At the very least the fourth official should be noting down what's going on in the game so it's a systemic failure.
"I don't know what Steven's instructions to the assistants would be. My preference was for my assistants to keep an eye on the game rather than write things down.
"I doesn't happen very often but I remember the Brian Winter incident at Tannadice - and you have to get to the bottom of it.
"After the game the observer will have come down to discuss things with Steven and if he is aware of the failure to send off the player then that will certainly have been discussed."
However Conroy does concede it can happen to anyone - and it nearly happened to him in 2009 when he wrongly sent off St Mirren defender Chris Innes at Celtic Park before performing a hasty U-turn.
He added: "A corner came in and Chris hand-balled it. I had reffed Chris for years and he always wore No.5 so I looked at my book - and I had got to the stage where I wrote down numbers rather than names.
"I had already booked No.5 so I showed Chris a second yellow and a red and 'off you go'.
"He offered no real complaint and it was only when he was walking off that I saw he was wearing No21!
"I though 'Aw Christ, what have I done?' Thankfully, I asked the 4th official to stop him and send him back on."
