‘Inconsistency’ over handball penalty decisions causing ‘frustration’ for every manager in Scotland

Hibs boss David Gray believes Motherwell star Tawanda Maswanhise was lucky to escape a VAR red card check for an attempted head-butt on Jack Iredale in tonight’s ugly 2-0 loss for the ten-man visitors to Fir Park. And he insists “inconsistency” over handball decisions is driving every manager in Scotland to distraction.

Hibs fell a goal behind after video assistant referee Greg Aitken prompted match official Duncan Nicholson to have a second look at shot that hit Grant Hanley in the hand with less than 20 minutes on the clock. Although the ball was struck from close range and appeared to be going wide, Nicholson awarded a penalty.

Maswanhise, who scored from the spot, was then involved in a clash with Iredale right in front of the technical areas. The Hibs coaching staff were adamant that the Motherwell man had motioned his head into the face of Iredale.

Worse was to come when, with Hibs already two down, Grant Hanley was red-carded for blatantly impeding Maswanhise and denying a goal-scoring opportunity. Reduced to ten men, Gray’s side did well just to keep the score down.

Asked if he had any complaints about the penalty, Gray said: “Yes and no. No because it’s self-inflicted and it comes about from losing the ball in a poor area.

“Yes because the inconsistency with decisions in the box I don’t understand. That’s the frustration of every manager at the moment when people have the chance to look back - and one’s a pen and the other isn’t.”

Offering up his opinions on the other two flashpoints in the game, Gray said: “I've got no complaints about the red card (for Hanley) because of the letter of the law. Now, if he's onside and he's brought down and you're the last man, that's a red card because it's outside the box.

“It's an accidental trip, I think. So, that is a red card. We've signed up to VAR and the technology, we can argue about that, whether I think it's good enough, the lines are good, it doesn't matter. It's a factual decision that we've all signed up to.

“So, I'm not going to argue about the offside. I just think that I can't argue with the red card.

Home star ‘gets away with’ pop at Iredale

“I do think there was one that I think Maswanhise gets away with in the first half. I've seen it with my own eyes, which is the only reason why I think he gets away with it.

“I've not seen a camera angle to confirm it, to be honest. So, I'm not going to blame anybody for that. I don't know what VAR looked at.

“But the linesmen have seen it. I've seen it. My goalkeeping coach has seen it.

“He tried to back head-butt Jack Iredale. I mean, he doesn't quite make contact. But if I make an action to go forward and try and head-butt somebody … he can't do that.

“And I've seen it with my own eyes. So, that's probably one that I think he finds himself quite fortunate to get away with. So, that's quite frustrating.

“There were big moments in the game that didn't quite go for us tonight. But at the same time, I think we got what we deserved at the start of the game.

“We probably deserved it for the first 25 minutes of the game. We were very unlike us, we started slowly, we were really poor in possession, made unforced errors and misplaced passes and everything that could have gone against us did. We went down to ten men and it was a really difficult task.”

Martin Boyle thought he’d scored to drag his team back into the contest just before half-time, as he rounded goalie Calum Ward and rolled a shot towards goal with the outside of his right boot. But a recovering defender slid into save the day for the home side.

Asked if he felt the skipper might have been more emphatic with his finish, Gray said: “Hindsight’s a wonderful thing. I don’t think he sees the recovering defender.

“Chances were going to be hard to come by then the next goal would have been important. It was a big moment.”

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