Curtis Main 'goal' at Tynecastle should have stood says Motherwell boss Robbo

Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson has revealed he's mystified by referee Willie Collum's decision to disallow a brilliant Curtis Main '˜goal' at Tynecastle on Saturday.
Stephen Robinson was mystified by some refereeing decisions which went against his team at Tynecastle (Pic by Ian McFadyen)Stephen Robinson was mystified by some refereeing decisions which went against his team at Tynecastle (Pic by Ian McFadyen)
Stephen Robinson was mystified by some refereeing decisions which went against his team at Tynecastle (Pic by Ian McFadyen)

The Steelmen lost the Scottish Premiership encounter 1-0 in Edinburgh despite bossing large parts of the game, with Main’s stunning left footed shot on the swivel from 20 yards being chopped off as he was adjudged to have fouled a Hearts defender in the build-up.

“It is a frustrating afternoon for us because the level of performance is there,” Robinson said.

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“I thought we dominated large parts of the game. At Tynecastle that doesn’t happen too often.

Curtis Main found the net in the first half but the strike was controversially disallowed (Pic by Ian McFadyen)Curtis Main found the net in the first half but the strike was controversially disallowed (Pic by Ian McFadyen)
Curtis Main found the net in the first half but the strike was controversially disallowed (Pic by Ian McFadyen)

“It was one shot on target Hearts had all day.

“Mark (Motherwell goalkeeper Gillespie) hasn’t had a thing to do. I think we’ve had a perfectly good goal disallowed.

“I’ve seen it back and I’ve been given an explanation for it but it’s a perfectly good goal.

“I got two different explanations for the reason it was disallowed.

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“The less I say about the decisions of referees at the moment the better as I’ll probably get a 50-game ban! I think it’s best to say nothing.

“We’ve had a great chance when Danny Johnson hits it, it’s going in and it hits Alex Gorrin.

“It’s frustrating but there’s a manner to lose football matches. We didn’t do that against Livingston but today the level of performance was excellent.

“Sometimes you just can’t dictate what happens results wise when decisions go against you.”

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Robinson said that his side’s failure to take scoring chances at Tynecastle had ultimately come back to haunt them in the end.

“We lacked a killer touch in the final third,” he said.

“Sometimes that’s the difference in games. As I say, I thought we controlled a lot. We had a lot of possession of the ball, we put a lot of balls into good areas, a goal disallowed, another couple of chances – when Danny turns, it’s going in and it hits off our own player.

“We have to stop the cross for the goal. You can look for excuses but we always look at ourselves and we should have stopped the cross, we should have got closer to the cross that they score from.

“That’s the only threat that they had all afternoon. So I take heart out of the performance, I take heart out of the application, desire and the quality from our players.

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“At a place like this, it’s difficult to come to. It’s hard after results, because everyone’s emotions are dictated to by one thing and one thing only.

“But I asked for a level of consistency and I’m getting that now in the performances.”

Consistency is certainly something that Motherwell have lacked in recent weeks.

Fine victories over St Mirren and Dundee last month had the Steelmen in confident mood heading to Ibrox to face Rangers, but that game was a disaster and ended in a 7-1 humiliation.

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To their massive credit, Motherwell recovered to thrash Aberdeen 3-0 in their next match, before turning in an abject display in a 2-0 defeat at Livingston.

But they battled valiantly in a 1-1 home draw against champions Celtic last Wednesday night and also turned in a good shift at Tynecastle without managing to get a deserved point.

The Steelmen’s topsy turvy campaign continues with a trip to Perth this Saturday to face in form St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.