| And, as well as justice for Danny Swanson and Prince Buaben, the Dundee United gaffer has called for a complete overhaul of how issues regarding mistakes by officials are dealt with.
United will decide later whether or not to appeal Swanson’s red card from bungling official Alan Muir for a tackle on Keith Lasley that both camps agreed was a booking at most.
They can’t do that with Buaben, because his red was for two yellow cards, but the manager was still intent on raising his case with Dallas.
And he was making no apologies for going public with his grievances and breaking a vow of silence agreed on with referees last season.
“I am as angry today as I was on Saturday. I’ve now watched a DVD of the game and no way were either sendings-off fair.
“Prince has had two tackles in the game, neither of them bad, and been booked twice, and Danny has at no time raised his feet and made a genuine attempt to get the ball.
“It was a foul, because the player nicked the ball away from him first, but no more than that. I know what Hugh Dallas will probably say when I get hold of him, but I am not accepting excuses because these red cards were clear mistakes.”
Craig also moved quickly to clarify his reasons for going public instead of keeping things behind closed doors as the SFA would prefer.
“I’ve heard people saying over the weekend that I would not publicly criticise one of my players, so I shouldn’t do so with referees.
“My answer to that is I criticise players in private because I know I can get a reaction from them and an improvement the next week.
“Criticise referees privately and nothing happens, the same mistakes get made and there is no improvement.
“I do not like criticising referees and, in over 12 years as a manager, I believe this is only the fourth time I’ve done it publicly, but I feel I have to.
“I’m certainly not out to get Alan Muir, but I think someone should sit down with him and point out the mistakes he made and he can learn from them.”
While he was on the subject, Craig also questioned the appeals system which will see United have to put up £1000 to get Swanson’s case examined — by the referee himself.
“I would like to know why we have to pay so much and what is so expensive to the SFA that it costs £1000 to conduct an appeal,” he added.
“As far as I can see, it is just a way of stopping clubs appealing because they only get the money back if they are successful.
“It’s also beyond me how they can have a system where the only person examining the evidence is the referee himself.”
Craig’s immediate concern is putting together a team for Saturday’s visit of St Mirren, knowing he will be denied the services of Swanson and Buaben for that game and a few more because they have broken through the penalty-points barrier.
“That’s going to be a big problem for us and it’s also another cost, because we are going to be paying two players to sit in the stand to watch for the next few weeks.
“It’s also costing them because they don’t have the chance to earn bonuses.
“I feel for Danny, in particular, because he lost his place in the team after a harsh red card at St Johnstone and hasn’t started since.”
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