'Didn't want to speak to me' - Robbie Neilson in red card admission as Hearts and Dundee United managers question decisions

Hearts and Dundee United managers Robbie Neilson and Liam Fox questioned key decisions made by referee Nick Walsh during the game at Tynecastle Park.

Nick Walsh came in for criticism from both Hearts and Dundee United managers. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

United were leading 1-0 when captain Ryan Edwards was sent off for a challenge on Andy Halliday following an intervention by VAR and then Hearts Josh Ginnelly received two bookings in quick succession with the game, won 3-1 by the home side, in stoppage time.

Dundee United boss Fox’s initial reaction was “it’s a really, really good tackle” and his opinion hadn't changed after seeing it again. He confirmed the club would be appealing it as they did with Tony Watt when he was red carded against Motherwell only to be overturned.

“The referee said it was excessive force,” he said. “I just thought it was a good tackle. Maybe I’m getting old — but that’s a normal tackle in my day. It’s disappointing because until that point we were really good. If you slow anything down, it can look worse than it is. It’s a contact game. In a contact game there will always be incidents that, if you slow them down, you’d probably be looking at three or four red cards every game. I’m just disappointed because it had a real impact on the game.

“These decisions always change games so I’m frustrated. But I repeat: I’m proud of my players and we need to stick together and keep believing.”

Fox had Hearts boss Neilson in his corner who revealed he “would be really disappointed” if one of his players had seen red for it.

“I thought it was a strong challenge at the time,” he said. “He went in for the ball and it wasn’t high. I might be proved wrong but I didn’t think it was a red at the time.”

Neilson frustration

Neilson was also left frustrated over the red card shown to Ginnelly. He was deemed to be wasting time as the game entered the final moments prompting a yellow card before receiving a second for clapping at Walsh following the first booking.

“I thought it was so poor,” he said. “I tried to talk to the referee but he didn’t want to speak to me. I thought it was terrible. Dundee United were down to 10 but they time wasted all day, two or three times the referee warned them. We did it once and he gets the yellow card out, desperate to do it.

“The second one, yes, you can’t clap him, but Nick Walsh is an experienced referee and the first one for me was handled very poorly. We pay the price as we have a man suspended now. If we go through the right processes we might get an answer from him, maybe if we see him sneaking out.”

The Hearts boss was delighted with his team's second-half reaction but was disappointed with the performance in the opening 45 minutes as the team struggled to break down a struggling United side, even after they had gone down to ten men.

“We were poor in the first half,” he said. “We were slow in possession, didn’t move it quickly enough and were not aggressive in our passing. The sending off changed the game, made it more open and we changed our shape and managed to win the game.”