Stuart Kettlewell was absolutely incensed after last night’s clash between Dundee and Motherwell at Dens Park.
The Motherwell manager felt strongly aggrieved by referee John Beaton’s decision not to stop play in the second-half after Kofi Balmer received an apparent head knock inside his own penalty area.
Immediately afterwards, Dundee would counter up the pitch to score and take the lead in the game after both sides went into the break at 1-1.
Dundee would then score another two goals to secure a thumping 4-1 victory and hand Motherwell a third straight Premiership defeat.
Kettlewell spoke to the BBC after the game and accused Beaton of ‘playing God’ before saying an incident like Balmer’s head knock can ‘impact livelihoods and jobs’.
Take in Kettlewell’s impassioned tirade below.
Kettlewell’s furious Motherwell head knock tirade
“I sat at a meeting last night with the officials with Willie Collum, the head of referees, and various other people and managers present.
“And we all spoke about a scenario where basically if the attacker gets on the goal side of the defender, and you look at Jordan McGhee with his arm around Kofi Balmer’s neck, above his shoulder and around his neck, I’ve seen umpteen angles of it.
“We agreed last night those would be penalty kicks and tonight it was not. Kofi Balmer falls to the ground and takes a knee and studs to his head.
“I’ve had a conversation with John Beaton there and he decided during it that he was going to play God and decided whether it was a bad enough head knock or not.
“Now he completely disagrees with me that that’s not the case, he just didn’t feel there was enough contact to Kofi’s head.
“I’ve seen the angles back. As he’s falling to the ground, the grappling that takes place, whether you decide that’s a penalty or not, when that player falls to the ground and takes a knee to the face and then followed up with a stud, completely accidental I have to say.
“But he never moves from the ground, he’s lying down holding his head and he never moves from the ground. The counter-attack goes up the other end, I’m speaking to the fourth official to tell him that my player’s not motioned, he’s not moved inside the penalty area.
“And we choose to play on and Dundee score and that’s when the carnage ensues, absolute madness seven minutes starts to ensue. The third goal is scored when Kofi Balmer’s off the pitch, he’s not allowed to come back on the pitch.
“And then we have to take responsibility for goals three and four, I’m not going to shirk that at all. But we also have to realise how big those moments are in games of football when the margins are so fine.”
Kettlewell: ‘This impacts livelihoods and jobs’
Kettlewell once again referenced Tuesday night’s meeting with Willie Collum, saying: “I was told last night that we should have had a penalty at 0-0 against Ross County a couple of weeks ago, we know we lose that game of football.
“But that impacts livelihoods, that impacts jobs, it impacts the emotion of the supporters, the league position and everything else.
“And do you know what? See when we have a chance to have a look back at that, we have to do something about it.
“There’s enough officials there with a view of that incident realising that the player’s not moved. They have to stop the game, it’s as simple as that.”