Tommy Wright has admitted a degree is required these days to understand the offside law.
But he remains convinced that St Johnstone’s controversial opening goal against Ross County on Saturday was correctly allowed to stand.
The County camp were aggrieved that referee John Beaton over-ruled his assistant referee, who had flagged Steven Anderson offside when Michael O’Halloran’s shot beat Mark Brown.
After watching the goal on television, Wright believes Beaton was right to give his side the benefit of the doubt.
“It was a goal,” he insisted. “Every week there is something happens in games. The week before they wanted a penalty for a perfectly good tackle by Chris Millar.
“I would have been disappointed if John Beaton had disallowed the goal because Ando was nowhere near the keeper, he wasn’t interfering and the ball was going in. Their keeper wasn’t getting it.
“In real time the referee made the right decision. Even playing it back it is inconclusive whether Ando was lifting his foot to try to deflect the ball in or lifting his foot to get out of the way. The referee was adamant and he had the best view.
“The rule was brought in to help attacking play. You almost need a degree to work out the different phases of the offside rule now.
“But whether we like it or not, whether or not we agree with it, the rule was brought in to encourage attacking play and more goals. In that incident Anderson’s movement didn’t affect the keeper.”