Stephen Robinson fear League Cup final injustice

Motherwell boss Stephen Robinson has admitted he would be "devastated" if he was to miss leading his side out at the Betfred Cup final.

Stephen Robinson
Published 25th Oct 2017

Robinson is set to fight a Scottish Football Association charge after he was sent to the stands during Well's 2-0 win over Rangers at Hampden on Sunday following a disagreement with opposite number Pedro Caixinha.

The Fir Park boss has been charged with misconduct and faces a hearing on November 9 which will determine whether he will be suspended for the final against Celtic on November 26. While Caixinha has already served a one-match ban, Robinson faces a stricter punishment after he received a three-game touchline ban from the SFA back in May 2016 while working as Well's assistant boss.

After seeing his side climb to third in the Ladbrokes Premiership with a 1-0 win at Dundee, Robinson said: "I will deal with that when it comes, we'll see what happens but I don't think I did a whole lot wrong.

"I didn't leave my technical area etc, but we will deal with that and speak to the SFA and I'm sure they will be sensible with it.

"I'd be absolutely devastated (to miss the final), for what it was. It would be an injustice to say the least, but we'll deal with it when it happens."

However he was delighted after Craig Tanner's early winner proved enough to claim three points at Dens Park.

"I said (to the players) that's the best result of the season," he said. "The last two games we have pulled out two results. The good thing is we're winning games and could play a lot better."

Dee were left disappointed after Sofien Moussa saw a header disallowed late in the first half for an alleged push on Peter Hartley, with manager Neil McCann barely able to hide his frustrations on the touchline.

"It's so hard as a manager to not lose your composure," McCann said. "That's a number of huge decisions to go against us recently.

"Tonight, (referee) Stephen Finnie said to me at half-time that there was a tiny or a soft push on the defender.

"If we are giving free-kicks for that, the game is stopping every two minutes because clearly there are two men coming together.

"There is no blatant push there. There is a touch but that is not enough to give a free-kick so we have been robbed of a legitimate goal there.

"I can't fathom it out and it takes all your strength of mind not to lose it at the side of the pitch.