Fresh controversy over refereeing decisions emerged in Scottish football on Friday night as Motherwell’s Dan Casey was shown a red card during the 1-1 William Hill Premiership draw with Kilmarnock.
Motherwell took the lead in the first half thanks to Liam Gordon’s debut goal for the club, but Kilmarnock equalized through Liam Polworth. The pivotal moment of the match occurred in the 78th minute when Danny Armstrong and Casey were involved in a heated clash.
Armstrong seemed to provoke the Motherwell defender into grabbing his shirt near his neck, prompting referee Chris Graham to swiftly issue a red card. Although VAR intervened, likely due to the severity of the decision, Graham upheld his initial call after reviewing the incident on the pitchside monitor.
The incident follows the controversy from Sunday’s League Cup final, where SFA head of referees Willie Collum openly admitted to an “unacceptable” mistake in failing to award Rangers a crucial penalty during their loss to Celtic at Hampden.
A frustrated Motherwell manager, Stuart Kettlewell, told BBC Scotland: “Calling it questionable is putting it mildly. I always strive to be honest, but I’m completely fed up with this. I’ve been informed that there have been three major errors in our last five games. I try to move forward and hope for better, but then tonight happens, and it’s by far the worst of them all. It’s absolutely astonishing.”
