Tommy Wright: Referee was spot-on with three penalty decisions
St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright defended referee Bobby Madden after he awarded the Perth side three first-half penalties in their Betfred Cup win over Falkirk.
St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright defended referee Bobby Madden after he awarded the Perth side three first-half penalties in their Betfred Cup win over Falkirk.
Liam Craig missed the first but Danny Swanson converted a brace before the interval as Saints cruised to a comfortable 3-0 victory.
Falkirk manager Peter Houston was far from impressed by some of the penalty decisions but Wright believes Madden was justified in awarding all of them - and feels his side should even have had another before the break.
Wright said: “I think we should have had a fourth when Cummins was fouled in the first half.
“I've watched them all back. The one on Danny is a penalty, Shaughnessy's is a penalty - he has his arms round him - and you can see why the referee has given the third one.
“The argument will be that there is no consistency but we could clearly see Cummins was getting his shirt pulled.
“It is unusual but by the letter of the law they are penalty kicks. The consistency thing will come into question but I can't change the rules.
“But I don't want penalty decisions to take away from the performance because we were very good.
“If I am being critical we didn't pass the ball as well in the second half. But it was a solid performance from us against a good team.”
A scrappy third goal after the interval rounded off a comfortable win, Steven MacLean initially credited but Shaughnessy possibly getting the final touch.
While Wright felt the referee was in the right to award the three penalties, Falkirk boss Houston took a different view.
He conceded there were arguments for two of the spot-kicks to have been given, but described the third decision as a “joke”.
Houston, whose side slumped to a second Betfred Cup group defeat, said: “The first was a definite penalty and we have no complaints. The second was a maybe. But the third was a joke. It was a poor decision. They were holding each other.”
Houston was also aggrieved that the Bairns were not awarded a spot-kick of their own by referee Madden.
He said: “Steven Anderson came right over the top of John Baird, and he didn't win the ball. Maybe Bairdie went down easily but Anderson committed a foul by going over the top of him. We are looking for consistency.
“But I'm not going to say over the piece St Johnstone didn't deserve to win. They didn't carve us open but at set plays our defence looked ropey and we have to go away and work on that.”