Aberdeen and St Johnstone managers united in shared frustrations over penalty award

Both Derek McInnes and Callum Davidson opened up on frustrations over the same pivotal penalty kick in Aberdeen’s 2-1 win over St Johnstone at Pittodrie.

The two sets of coaching staff shake hands before the match during the Scottish Premiership match between Aberdeen and St Johnstone at Pittodrie Stadium on December 26, 2020, in Aberdeen, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

In an unusual occurrence, both managers questioned the strength of the award by referee Alan Muir – with McInnes, the recipient of the decision, claiming an earlier incident merited a penalty more. Callum Davidson, who also saw Jamie McCart red-carded later said there was no definite incident to justify the decision.

He said: “I'm baffled as to what the penalty was given for. There's no tug, no pull. If somebody falls to the floor in the box, for me it has to be a definite incident.

"We were comfortable in the game right up to that point, and it changes the game massively in Aberdeen's favour."

McInnes added: “I'm as frustrated as Callum is going to be because I think it's such a soft penalty to be given, but the penalty should have been given for the handball before that.”

However, Davidson had no complaints over Muir’s decision to send off McCart for a second caution – the third consecutive game there’s been a red card for the Perth side.

He added: "The sending off was a sending off. He's already been booked and he goes in for the tackle. It's a bookable offence, so that's it.

"We've now lost players to sendings off in three successive games which is disappointing with Callum, Michael O'Halloran and Jason Kerr, and for me that's not good enough.

"It's disappointing to lose games like that and we need to sort how we win those games that we're actually playing well in.”

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