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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
David Irvine

Kettlewell holds talks with ref chief over Motherwell vs Rangers VAR & red card calls

Stuart Kettlewell has revealed he held talks with SFA ref chief Crawford Allan over decisions in Motherwell's loss to Rangers.

The Fir Park boss demanded answers after the loss over Rangers' third goal and the decision to send off Callum Slattery for a second yellow card.

Kettlewell was left bemused over the decision to allow Todd Cantwell's goal to stand with claims Fashion Sakala was offside in the build-up.

Bevis Mugabi also questioned the "suspect" offside lines used the determine whether the player was offside when the goal was checked by VAR.

He also slammed the decision to send off Slattery after Cantwell went down as Slattery looked to protect the ball with an outstretched arm.

Now, the Motherwell boss has revealed that he spoke with Allan over the decisions this morning.

On BBC Sportsound, Kettlewell said: “That’s the biggest frustration for me. It's not a second yellow but with the player's reaction (it looks like it).

“I've said this to Crawford Allan this morning when I had a conversation with him.

“It was an amicable conversation. I just had a couple of questions I wanted answers on."

Kettlewell, however, added that he appreciated the tough job Nick Walsh faced during the match as he slated Cantwell's reaction to the coming together.

He added: “But I did say I realise Nick Walsh's job becomes incredibly difficult when the player goes down in the fashion that he did, holding his face.

“There was contact, but it wasn't to his face. This is when you start to become frustrated.

“It's a difficult one for Nick Walsh with the scenario he was given, but I don't think it was a yellow card."

On Rangers' third goal, Mugabi told Lanarkshire Live: "It's been a bit questionable. A lot of people have noticed the lines look a bit suspect but that is out of our control, we can't control what VAR does.

"All we can do is focus on ourselves and make sure we do what we are supposed to do during the game.

"It is just a shame we couldn't hold on for a bit longer than we did after the goal and the sending off didn't help us either."

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