Frustrated Livingston boss David Martindale insisted some decision went against his team - but admits the Lions' 'indefensible' mishaps cost them the game against Hibs.
The hosts ran out 4-0 winners with an early red card for Livi midfielder Jason Holt being the main talking point. The former Hearts man was ordered off after connecting with the ankle of Kevin Nisbet with a forceful challenge.
Minutes before that, Martindale believes his side should have had a penalty after Bruce Anderson went down under pressure inside the box.
Hibs took full advantage of those decisions going in their favour and produced a clinical display that was aided by Livi's lacklustre defence.
Nisbet opened the scoring on 33 minutes as he reacted to Ivan Konovalov palming away a Ryan Porteous free-kick before the Russian was picking the ball out of the net again within 60 seconds as a Chris Cadden angled drive doubled the home side's lead.
Kyle Magennis nodded home five minutes before and five minutes after the break to put the game firmly to bed while Konovalov had to be alert to deny the impressive Elie Youan a fifth for Hibs.
Perhaps nothing summed up Livingston's day more, though, than when they were awarded a late penalty. Esmael Goncalves was clipped in the box with the striker seeing his spot-kick tipped by David Marshall onto the post - only for Livi to be awarded a second penalty as the rebound hit the arm of a Hibs defender.
Marshall, again, came on top as his trailing kicked blocked Jack Fitzwater's piledriver.
A dejected Martindale said: "I don't think it's a red card but I might be wrong. We've only seen one angle of it. For me, it's also a penalty on Brucey. I thought that in real time. He's lifted his right foot to shoot and Paul Hanlon's caught him and the ball rolls into David Marshall.
"Brucey's ready to shoot and Hanlon doesn't get any contact on the ball, so how it's not a penalty I don't know.
"Jason's in real time, I thought was a yellow card. He stretches and I don't think his foot's high but he stretches with a bit of momentum to try and get a bit of force on the ball to clear it and Kevin Nisbet comes in from his blind side. So I'm thinking how's that a foul? Excessive force for me would come in when there's a tackle. It wasn't a tackle.
"It's debatable if Jason's actually seen him. I don't understand why he doesn't give a yellow card and then if it's a clear and obvious error, he can go to the monitor. By giving a red I think it's difficult to overturn."
As for his side's display, though, he didn't hold back as they shipped in four goals.
He commented: "We were horrendous defensively for three of the four goals. We had a tough game on the Wednesday at Celtic Park but that doesn't excuse the goals that we lost because they were very poor.
"For the first goal, the keeper's got to do better from the free-kick. He has to put that in a safer area and also Stephen Kelly probably could have been tighter to Nisbet. The third and fourth goals are terrible and it's on me and all of us individually to rectify that."
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