Two former top Scottish referees have accused Lee Johnson of ENCOURAGING Ryan Porteous to cheat and believe the Hibs boss should be hauled up to Hampden for backing his defender during the controversial weekend clash with Aberdeen.
Dons defender Liam Scales was sent off and conceded a penalty following a foul on Porteous during the match at Easter Road but ex-whistlers Des Roache and Steve Conroy pointed the finger at Johnson after claiming the man in the middle David Dickinson was conned.
Jim Goodwin was furious after the game and accused Porteous of “blatant cheating” with his post match comments angering Hibs officials who made their displeasure at the Irishman and he was backed up by Roache and Conroy on the Get Involved Referee podcast. Roache said: “Ryan Porteous is the one who instigated the whole thing. First of all he grabs Liam Scales and then he has him in a headlock. You can clearly see that as they fall to the ground, Scales has got his arms up saying ‘I’m not to blame here’.
“As bad as that is, what’s worse is that his manager is condoning it. He said in his post-match interview that ‘good play forced the sending off’. That has to be looked at – a manager encouraging and enticing his players to get another player sent off. Let’s take that back to the bones – that’s cheating. Porteous is in the wrong and the manager is even worse, in my opinion.”
And Conroy added: “It goes beyond condoning, it’s encouraging cheating. Let’s not kid ourselves here. It was cheating by Porteous and his manager is coming out and praising him for it. I have said before I don’t understand how the SFA do their business. Going by what is being reported, Johnson could get away with encouraging his player to cheat and Goodwin could be hauled up by the beaks for calling Porteous out.
“I feel sorry for David Dickinson because he has also been cheated by what Porteous has done. And what worries me is that the choreography of events didn’t look natural – it looked practiced. Johnson has come out and basically said he’s encouraging his players to cheat. Surely they have some common sense up there (Hampden)? You can’t come out and say that. It’s in neon lights – Hibs encourage you to cheat.”
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