Craig Levein has made a blistering attack on the match officials after Scotland lost 2-1 to Wales in a World Cup qualifier.
German whistler Florian Meyer made a number of strange decisions but as everyone in Scottish football realises these things even themselves out.
Wales had strong claims for a penalty ignored when Christoph Berra put both arms around Craig Davies to wrestle the substitute to the ground.
Minutes later Steven Fletcher looked to have headed Scotland two up but his effort was disallowed provoking the fury of Levein.
“That second goal was oh so important to us,” the current Scotland manager claimed. “And I believe the officials made a serious error with the chalked off goal which Steven Fletcher scored. That is very hard to take.
“For me it is a huge error, coming hard on the back of the last qualifying campaign when we had a similar situation against the Czech Republic. It’s very difficult to take. The only thing we can do is go to Belgium and try and win on Tuesday.
“I feel an injustice again this evening but the important thing is we react in the right manner. It makes it more difficult but I think we can win in Belgium now.
“We need to win on Tuesday. Tonight is a disappointment. We have had some hammer blows and this is the latest. We have an honest, hard working group of boys who feel a bit aggrieved about what happened. We’ll try and use that for Tuesday.”
Levein added: We have been subject to a couple of really poor decisions and it has a huge effect on our chances of qualifying. That makes me pretty angry but I don’t think there is any point in venting that anger here.
“You can understand my frustration and everyone who watched it will make up their own minds if they were poor decisions by the officials. I can only relay my feelings and I am extremely angry about this happening to us again.”
In three years as Scotland manager Levein has won three competitive matches, twice against Liechtenstein and a home win over Lithuania.
CLICK HERE for Green’s Premiership attack is ridiculed
Follow Video Celts on Twitter and Facebook
we got what we deserved-nothing-another piss poor performance from scotland under levein,get rid of now!
the man is tactically niave, stubborn,arrogant and most of all useless……sack him NOW
Why would we allow Wales to take a short free kick and allow their best player (who we looked petrified of) carry the ball 15-20 yards with no challenge (and with some of our players not even looking at the game??? Levein must go!!!
I have seen some shocking things in football but that lines man and ref were by far the worst ,it is time for technology no ref the game if this was England that had this done too them it would be headline main news ,it was not a bad decision it was pure criminal ,and the pen was weak too this ref and linesman should never be able too ref a game again ,give credit where credit is due bale was on top form but that does not warrant a win ,Scotland are a ad out fit and my personal opinion is sack the whole team and build a team round young Forrest and hopefully in about 3 to 4 years Scotland could be where the tartan faithfully should be a euro or a world cup finals ,good luck too Scotland in the future couse by what I seen the last couple of games you,s need it
I agree, start focusing on bringing in the young ones, given time we should do well given we have some great youngsters coming through forrest included, the right man has to guide them though.
The ref had a decent game, he made a mistake or two but I give him credit for allowing the game to flow.
The linesman thought he had made a mistake with offside before the cross came in so flagged that the ball had crossed the line, it didnt.
Overall it was a fair score.Wales never gave up and in Bale had the man of the match by miles.
You’ve just got to laugh when you hear anyone from the corrupt SFA bleating about refereeing mistakes.
Seriously? He was one of the worst refs I’ve seen. The amount of fouls he missed (for both sides) was unreal and the goal was a total joke. We didn’t play that bad just typical Scotland doing our usual pish! Levein is not the man for for us tho. No too sure who is tho!!!!!
Levein doesn’t even mention the worst game changing decision of the night…Steven Fletcher was ONLY 10yards offside at our goal.
Go Levein, your embarrassing yourself but worse of all your embarrassing Scotland.
Your team were HELPED by some shocking decisions, yet still lost.
GO NOW!!
CBOY. You cannot be offside when receiving the ball direct from a goal kick.
Disallowing that goal was a pathetic decision. And a second goal would have killed Wales.
However, I was worried before the game that Bale would score one of his trademark goals. And if I was worried, why wasn’t Levin?
Another thing, I wish Levin would keep his mouth shut if he’s not got anything intelligent to say. I still cant believe that he said before the game, “We dont need to beat Wales”.
What a clown. Of course we needed to beat Wales. If we actually had any intention of trying to qualify that is.
I was really keen to give the guy a chance to prove himself, but all he’s done since he took over is acted like a dick.
Agreed!!!!
Levein is a fud and must go, no debate about it. I’m surprised I’m the first to mention how much that second goal was caused by Charlie Adam… He gave away the ball, then fouled Bale and then let him run right by him before starting to chase him. It was a cracking strike by Bale but if Adam had to have went to the player earlier then there would not have been a chance to shoot… FUD.
The goal chopped off was unbelievable… but then again they should have had a pen when Berra rugby tackled in the box.. Overall a piss poor performance from Scotland
I think Adam intended to foul Bale as he was busy shouting ‘diver’ an they already have their past. If Adam hadn’t have away that free kick things may have been different – the guy is a total helmet
Sorry for the players who at times looked to be bamboozled by what was going on around them, was the game plan thoroughly explained to them?
In saying that I’m totally indifferent to what the Scottish side does, have been for a number of years now and until the SFA puts their (and themselves) house in order by eradicating the bias and questionable activities they practice I will not be cheering the side on…… case in point….. Craig Levein proves the old adage … “IF YOU CANT BEAT THEM…. JOIN THEM!!
Agreed, Levein was only given the job to stop him whingeing about the SFA and the biased refereeing against his team!!!!
I used to think he had the making of a really good manager. I liked the way he fought his team’s corner. Turned out, that’s pretty much all he had.
Excuses are for losers….as Jock Stein once said…if we are good enough the referee doesn’t matter. We were guilty of serious errors in team selection AGAIN.
Commons stranded out on the right wing when he is 100% more effective in a roaming commission.
Fox / Maloney partnership was an accident waiting to happen…the first time Bale walked by both should have seen Levein take action but he failed AGAIN.
Wales could / should have taken the lead with the free header…another warning we failed to heed.
Ref was bad for both sides, the assault by Berra was pathetic not befitting an International player.
Bringing on Charlie Adam for the combative Scott Brown was another accident waiting to happen…like for like surely, Brown was well known to be carrying an injury so why not have a tough tackling midfielder to step in…not the slow / passenger….who was also a red rag to Bale and just what he needed to see.
Pack your bags NOW Levein and do not pass go.
Better still stay out of Scotland.
aye, its the refs fault he has the worst managerial record ever for scotland…… guy is a plum….
WSG, the job is yours
The fool is well suited to zombie fc. Couldnt spell attack. Boring, useless, and when all else fails blame everyone else. What idiot comes out in the press to say we dont need to win this game? Lost for words. Him and that hun prick houston are a waste of oxygen
Why is that clown stil in the job? Levein showed his credentials when he made the statement he did about Krs Commons being behind six or seven others when he first selected his squad! Levein is incapable, incompetent, and has a worse record than Vogts had. He is mot the guy for this job. He has it because he is a puppet, certainly not because he is a tactical genius! He is an embarrassment, and the worst part is we can’t even claim his heart isn’t in it because he isn’t Scottish!
The idiots who have failed this far to fire him should also be fired along with him. After te two disastrous home draws we still had a chance to qualify but not now. He should have been replaced after two home fiascos. Now its too late! Not like the SFA to mess up though is it?
the writing is on the bookies wall.before the game Scotland were 50/1 to qualify,what now?