Robbie Neilson last night hammered referee David Munro over the decision to send him to the stands at Tynecastle.
The Hearts boss was ejected from the dugout for the final four minutes of the match after being shown a second yellow card by the whistler.
It meant a nervy final period for Neilson who watched his side hang on to see out a 1-0 victory over a hardy St Mirren.
Neilson – who insisted he’s still unsure why he was sent to the stands – jokingly warned he could have to start the match among the supporters when Munro next officiates a Hearts match.
“There is nothing you can do about it, you are dealing with referees, some are good some are bad,” said Neilson when asked about his red card.
“I have spoken to him and I still don’t really know to be honest with you.
“I think there are some referees that you can talk to and some have a rapport with you and have got personality and can talk and understand it, and there’s others who don’t have any of that.
“Unfortunately, for me I think the latter was this evening.”
Quizzed on whether fourth official Graham Beaton was involved in the sending off, Neilson said: “The fourth official was brilliant, absolutely outstanding I thought he was tonight, I thought he was really good. But I’m not going to detract from the performance.
“The referee made his decision, it is part of football and I just need to take it on the chin.
“I’ll know next time when we’ve got him that I’ll probably need to start in the stand.”
Neilson handed a debut to James Hill in the win over St Mirren which saw Hearts go six points clear in third. And the Tynecastle boss was thrilled with the Bournemouth loanee’s performance.
“I was delighted with James, I thought he was outstanding,” beamed Neilson.
“For a kid who has not played in a while to come up here and perform in front of 20,000 people.
“Firstly, in possession he was outstanding; some of the switches of play and through passes. And more importantly out of possession he was top; winning headers, being aggressive so really pleased with him.”
There were injury concerns for Lawrence Shankland, Alex Cochrane and Andy Halliday in the victory, however. Shankland rolled his ankle with Cochrane suffering a tight hamstring and Halliday taken off after a head knock.
Asked for an injury update, Neilson said: “Lawrence rolled his ankle but he will be fine.
“Alex Cochrane had a tight hamstring. It was tight at half time to be honest with you but we asked him to try it. He started to feel it and we’ve got a big game Wednesday so we took him out.
“We put Andy at left-wingback which he can do no bother and then Andy got a head knock.
“He will be assessed with regards to Wednesday.”
