Barry Smith call for advantage rule clarity after derby penalty confusion

For many, including United manager Peter Houston, it was a case of the better side having won, but Smith nursed a serious grievance over the award of a 71st-minute penalty to the away side.

Collum allowed play to continue after Stuart Armstrong had been swiped off his feet by a Gary Irvine challenge while in the act of crossing the ball. After Jon Daly’s subsequent shot had been saved by Dundee goalkeeper Robert Douglas, the referee brought play back to where he had perceived a foul had been committed, and signalled a penalty. Daly converted the award to make it 2-0 to United and effectively end the game as a contest.

“Major decisions have gone against us,” said Smith. “I think there’s too many grey areas and it has to be cleared up. When is it a penalty? When do we stop playing advantage?

“The referee allows Daly to have a shot and then gives him a penalty. Is it advantage or is it a penalty?

“It’s one or the other, you can’t give them both. I think we have to get that sorted out.”

Smith noted that there is a meeting comprising several Scottish Premier League managers, referee and also Vincent Lunny, the Scottish Football Association’s compliance officer, today at Hampden Park.

He wants to be handed some firm guidelines on the subject of the advantage rule. “I believe there is a meeting tomorrow where hopefully it can get ironed out because these are major decisions in the game,” he said. “Up until that point in the second half we were probably in control and creating chances.”

If Smith runs into Collum today, there is bound to be some frostiness. The Dundee manager expressed surprise that the referee had been given another Dundee game so soon after sending off Colin Nish during the first half of a clash against St Mirren a fortnight ago. The striker sat out yesterday’s derby as a result.

“There’s no point speaking to the referee after the game because some of them just don’t give respect back,” said Smith. “Football’s a heated game and they say that we don’t give them respect but some of them don’t give respect out. Not all of them [are like that],” he added, pointedly. “There are a lot of good referees out there, but why we have the same referee that we had two weeks ago, I don’t know.

“United have won the game but did they deserve to win 3-0? I don’t think so, which is disappointing from our point of view.”

Unsurprisingly, Houston did not attach such significance to the penalty award, which came when United were already 1-0 up.

Although Dundee were endeavouring to find a way back into the game, they created few clear-cut chances except for a Steven Milne chance just before the half-hour mark.

Matt Lockwood’s free-kick was tipped over the bar by Radoslaw Cierzniak just two minutes before Daly’s decisive penalty conversion.

“That was a complete professional performance from us and we thoroughly deserved the win,” said Houston. “I think in recent weeks we have played better football but derby matches are all about winning. That’s the most important thing to our supporters because they want the bragging rights.

“When you wipe somebody out in the penalty box it’s a penalty kick,” he added, with reference to Irvine’s challenge on Armstrong.

“People will talk about the fact Jon Daly got a shot off but Armstrong didn’t get the contact he wanted on the ball to set Jon up.

“Our player got wiped out and that’s a penalty kick.

“We’ve had it against us, but today we got it for us,” he continued. “I think the referee made the correct decision and a brave one at that.

“But I don’t think comes down to a penalty decision. I thought Dundee United were the better team today, we had the better chances, scored three and I think we could have scored more. I’m delighted.

“That’s my third Dundee derby and they’ve all been 3-0 so I couldn’t ask for any more than that.”