It’s quite a claim but Andrew Dallas possibly made the biggest refereeing mistake of the season today during the Motherwell v Hearts match at Fir Park.
Celtic players have suffered some brutal treatment in their last three matches with Dallas, Bobby Madden and John Beaton offering little protection but this afternoon Dallas pushed things further with an incredible decision.
With Motherwell attacking the Hearts penalty box Louis Moult’s change of direction sees him run into the back of Lionel Ainsworth’s book sending Moult to the ground.
Dallas was less than five yards away but somehow thought that the contact came from Malaury Martin of Hearts with the home side awarded a free kick and Martin yellow carded!
So if this happened inside the box Andrew Dallas would’ve given @MotherwellFC a penalty against @JamTarts ????? https://t.co/efQAYGwumN pic.twitter.com/g5VBFrrLFC
— Scottish Sun Sport (@scotsunsport) February 4, 2017
Fortunately for Dallas and Hearts the decision didn’t have a bearing on the result but later on in the season Martin might find himself suspended as a result of today’s booking.
Dallas, who has been fast tracked through the ranks, managed to get onto the elite FIFA refereeing list without refereeing a single Celtic match.
In January 2014 he forgot to include a booking for Ian Black when he submitted his match report to the SFA, perhaps he could save himself further grief by forgetting to report Martin’s booking from today’s match.
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