St Johnstone won’t appeal Alan Mannus’s red card against Dundee United.
Perth boss Tommy Wright maintains that the “triple whammy” of a penalty, a sending off and a one-game suspension is too severe for a genuine attempt by the Saints keeper to beat Billy Mckay to the ball during Saturday’s Tayside derby.
But he believes challenging the referee’s decision would be pointless.
“We have looked at it and it was a goalscoring opportunity and I can understand why Bobby Madden made the decision,” Wright said.
“I don’t think it is one we could get overturned. But there has to be a level of consistency.
“Alan was a bit careless but he tried to stop and slid into the striker. The ball probably wasn’t going away from Mckay enough for us to claim he hadn’t got it under control.
“But with my goalkeeper’s union hat on I do feel it flags-up a real issue.
“Any keeper in that situation is punished by the award of a penalty. Then he is sent off. And he also misses the next game. So it is a triple whammy punishment for a keeper and his club. I think that is something that has to be looked at.
“I feel keepers in similar situations to Alan are making an attempt to stop the ball. It’s not deliberate.
“We will take it on the chin and move on.
“He will miss the game at Aberdeen. It’s the first he will have missed in a while. He didn’t miss any games last season.”
Zander Clark performed very well as Mannus’s replacement at the weekend, and Wright has backed him to do so again at Pittodrie.
He will have to look for an emergency stand-in substitute though.
“I have every confidence in Zander,” Wright said. “Over the summer I knew I had two number ones here. He played superbly in friendlies in Northern Ireland and against Aberdeen, Blackpool and Real Sociedad.
“I have no qualms about him facing Aberdeen. He proved again on Saturday he is more than capable.
“The key was how he dealt with the situation. He was calm and he was composed. His handling was very good.
“Zander made an important save at 1-0 from John Souttar and he was involved with our winner with a great kick. I was really pleased with him.
“He had an excellent season at Queen of the South and I will have no qualms about playing him at Pittodrie. We will have to get in an emergency keeper because Mark Hurst is out on loan at Elgin. The rules state you must have a recognised keeper on the bench. But Zander will start.
“We have 10 players out on loan and they are all benefiting from the loan system.”
Tam Scobbie (shoulder), Chris Millar (hamstring) and Michael O’Halloran (hamstring) are all injury doubts for the Aberdeen match. Graham Cummins suffered a cramp and will be fine.
Reflecting on the derby win, Wright noted: “I was pleased with the players’ desire to keep going. At 1-1 United had stepped it up we made the change to go 4-4-1 to give the three a bit of help in midfield. And we wanted to make sure we came away with at least a point. But the lads still believed and came up with the winner.
“It has been a really good week on the back of the win over Rangers and sets us up nicely for a really tough game in Aberdeen.”