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Edinburgh team's head coach John Robertson defended his team's safety against Lithuanian Saulius Mikoliūnas, who faces a long period of disqualification after a painful loss in the Scottish championship match against the Glasgow team.
As we already wrote, S.Mikoliūnas, infuriated by a very questionable decision of referee Hugh Dallas to award a penalty kick in the last minute of the match, received two red cards for disputes with referees at the end of the match.
With the score tied at 90 minutes after a corner kick, "Rangers" player Sotirios Kyrgiakos leaped in the penalty area, but failed to reach the ball and fell. Initially, the field referee wanted to award a free kick from the "Hearts" goal, but assistant referee Andy Davis, unlike all the spectators in the stadium, was convinced that the Greek player was floored by Edinburgh team's forward Lee Miller.
H.Dallas went to consult with his assistant and decided to award a penalty kick, meanwhile, the away team's forward Dado Pršo, while trying to take the ball from the opponents' goalkeeper, floored him. The referee sent off the Croat for a second yellow card, and angered by the penalty given, Mikoliūnas ran to the assistant and collided chests with him. The Lithuanian was shown a red card, and then for the words said to the referee, he earned another one.
"Mikoliūnas confronted the side referee and was sent off the field for it. Unfortunately, he then also had an altercation with the field referee Hugh Dallas and it seems he received another red card for it," said J.Robertson.
For the gross misconduct and attack on the referee in England, "Southampton" defender D.Prutton was recently disqualified for ten matches, and Mikoliūnas also faces a significant penalty from the Scottish Football Association.
"However, people should think why he got so upset. Why did then 12 thousand "Hearts" fans get upset? Why did no one from the "Rangers" bench demand that penalty kick? I think when deciding on the amount of disqualification time, the referees should take into account that he is still a young lad," said the coach.
The decisions of the referees in Wednesday's match greatly upset the "Hearts" supporters, and rumors spread that the assistant referee Andy Davis is a fan of the "Rangers" team, and had even bought a season ticket to the team's matches at the "Ibrox" stadium in the past.
In Scotland, it is not a secret that match referees usually make decisions that favor the traditionally most powerful Glasgow clubs in the country, and for the past ten years, "Rangers" and "Celtic" have occupied the first two positions in the "Premier" league, with the last time a non-Glasgow team becoming champion 20 years ago when "Aberdeen" won the league.
