Furious Tony Docherty blasted the decision to disallow Antonio Portales a superb second goal before Motherwell turned Dundee’s 1-0 lead around to win 2-1 at Dens Park.
The Dark Blues were deserving of their lead after a positive opening 45 minutes lit up by Portales firing an unstoppable volley into the top corner.
Seconds before half-time it looked like he had repeated that trick only for the Video Assistant Referee to intervene and give Clark Robertson offside.
The return after the break then saw Motherwell take control, levelling through Tom Sparrow before VAR intervened again, this time for referee Kevin Clancy to send off John Koutroumbis.
Despite being a man light, the Steelmen went on to grab all three points thanks to a stoppage-time winner from Tawanda Maswanhise as he outjumped Clark Robertson.
After a damaging defeat for Dundee that leaves them two points ahead of Ross County in 11th, Docherty pointed immediately to the disallowed goal in his post-match comments.
‘Disgrace’
“My huge frustration in the game today – and I’m not abdicating responsibility as Dundee manager for losing a game we should never lose – but the decision to disallow the second goal in my opinion is a disgrace,” Docherty said.
“Officials are finding ways to disallow goals.
“It changes the dynamic of the game. There is no doubt the opposition gets a lift from that decision.
“Antonio Portales scores a fantastic goal with his right foot in the top corner and an even better one with his left foot.
“And the officials contrive to find a way to disallow that goal.
“I’m hugely frustrated with that.
“This game for spectators is all about entertainment and the entertainment comes from teams scoring goals. You see the reaction from fans when Antonio scores his second goal.
“Again I will stress the point that I am not abdicating responsibility.
“Our second half performance, they came out on top and had a lift from the decision.
“We went deep and allowed them back into the game with not matching a runner.
“When they get a player sent off we go for it, we send on an attacker and go 4-4-2.
“We shouldn’t lose it, it was a ridiculous goal to lose the match on.
“It would have been an important point the way the results went today.
‘I spoke with the referee’
“I spoke with the referee and he said Clark Robertson was offside but in my opinion he doesn’t affect anything.
“If anything it’s Joe Shaughnessy challenging.
“So I hugely question that.
“But it wasn’t the referee’s decision. Referees don’t referee games any more. What do linesmen do?
“They give throw-ins. There are no offsides given any more.
“And it is continually getting decisions wrong. That’s where the frustration comes for me.”
‘Can’t keep making mistakes’
Docherty added: “I’ll take accountability and responsibility for us losing a game we should never have lost.
“At the very worst we should draw.
“I’ll deal with that as Dundee manager.
“We will reflect on the way we lost the game, I will take responsibility for that, the team will take responsibility for that.
“With three games left to go we can’t keep making mistakes like that.
“The second goal was really soft but I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus. We’ll deal with that.”
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