Four days after watching his side lose at Ibrox Martin Canning’s view on John Beaton’s display hasn’t mellowed.
Indeed the Hamilton boss has highlighted another Joe Garner incident that could prove costly in his side’s battle to stay in the top flight.
Following his x-rated challenge on Dougie Imrie, Garner went on to score a hat-trick with one clumsy challenge on Blair Adams putting the defender out of action for three weeks with a bad head knock.
“I didn’t make a big deal of it after the game because we have to look at ourselves first and for whatever reason in the last 10 minutes we just fell apart,” Canning admitted to the Evening Times. “But I spoke to John Fleming about it. That will remain between me and him but we have discussed it.
“I have spoken to him once or twice this season and he is always approachable and happy to discuss it and he is a pretty fair guy in that he will call it as he thinks it is.
“It is a difficult one because there is not a lot he can say other than the decisions haven’t gone our way.
“I am never critical of referees because it is a hard job to see it in real time and get it right but that’s ultimately what they get paid for and why they are the elite.
“They should be getting big decisions right and to get three wrong in the one game, it really affects the game.
“The decisions within the game dictated the game and I don’t think that would have been the case had the decisions gone the way they should have gone.
“It was a penalty that wasn’t a penalty that put us 1-0 down. The explanation I got after the game was that John Beaton saw that he had been pulled down which wasn’t the case.
“There was a slight amount of contact. I think he stands on his toe but I don’t think it is enough and he goes down two seconds after when he realises he can’t get his shot away.
“Their goalkeeper should have been sent off which changes the game. It was pretty obvious he was outside the box and it was a sending off.
“And Garner scores a hat-trick and puts one of our players out for three weeks with a bad cut and concussion when he should have been off the park.
“I don’t know if it is true but if luck is a thing that evens itself out then we are due a bit of it because quite a few of them (decisions) have gone against us this season.”
Despite the obvious mistakes of Beaton the SFA have declined to take any retrospective punishments.
Little can be done about the penalty decision given to Sevco or Garner’s booking but it seems that there is no intention to punish Wes Foderingham for his deliberate handball. In 2015 Josh Meekings was initially charged for his handball against Celtic before the SFA backed down.
On Saturday Beaton will be the fourth official at the Ross County v Kilmarnock match.
