Linesman's flag cost us the match, says Livingston manager David Martindale, after defeat by Hearts

Livingston manager David Martindale claimed the linesman’s flag in the last minute of normal time cost his team the match against Hearts.

Livingston manager David Martindale was angry about late offside decision

Bruce Anderson was flagged for offside by assistant referee Frank Connor when a long ball down the right put him in behind the Hearts defence, although John Souttar appeared to be closing in and the whistle blew before the Livingston sub got his shot away.

Martindale, however, was not impressed after his team’s 1-0 defeat at the Tony Macaroni Arena.

He said: “Hearts got done by an offside goal on Thursday and that’s all you read about in the papers

“We got done by an offside goal on Wednesday [at Aberdeen] and a harsh yellow card but it is not in the papers.

“I have now been done with Bruce Anderson clean through on goal and he has been flagged offside.

“Who is it that loses their job? It is not the officials, it is me. It is not good enough, end of.

“When your striker is going through on goal in the 90th minute and they get it wrong you cannot defend that.

“When I shook hands with the Hearts bench afterwards they all told me I had been done. They told me it was way onside.

“I genuinely feel hard done by and I’m not one to normally have a go at officials.

“I have told him he is on by two yards and the linesman tells me that it is not his fault we got beat.

“I can see his point but that decision did play a part in the defeat.”

Martindale said he would have felt better had the assistant referee explained his decision or admitted it was a mistake.

He added: “If he had said he would look back at it and say sorry if he got it wrong then that would be fine.

“But, don’t be arrogant to me. It is poor because you are not allowed to speak to officials.

“I don't like doing this but we have been done by another decision against us.”

Livingston have now gone six league games without a win and remain second bottom of the table.

Martindale felt his team deserved at least a point after dominating the first half.

He added: “We did deserve to take something from the game.”

“Craig Gordon makes a triple save in the first half and those also changed the game for us.

“We played well and we also had a couple of decent chances in the second half as well.”

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