Motherwell blasts ref Willie Collum over 'shocker' foul on Mika Biereth in cup defeat

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell insists his side were denied a stonewall penalty and reckons Charles Dunne was lucky not to be red-carded for a foul on Mika Biereth that has left the winger injured.And he says the foul on Biereth was one of the worst he has seen all season.Kettlewell says he’s not seeking to make excuses, but says there were key incidents that went against his side as they crashed out of the Viaplay Cup second round to Caolan Boyd-Munce’s eighth--minute rocket strike.And he says referees depend too much on VAR to get decisions right.Kettlewell said: “There are two massive decisions.“I don’t want to sit here as a guy who continually makes excuses, but there are two decisions in the game today.“One is a stonewall penalty in the first half, Mikael Mandron hand-balls it [from Dan Casey’s shot] and I’m always a huge believer in a player’s reaction – he knows it has come off the hand, that his hand is outstretched, which is everything that the video shows.“But I’m more upset with the challenge in the second half from Charles Dunne on Mika Biereth, it’s an absolutely horrendous tackle, two-footed tackle and straight-legged.“I’ve now got a striker sitting on the treatment bed down there.“I was instructed that these types of tackle were outlawed in the game.“I’m not throwing Willie under the bus, he’s one of our top officials, and rightfully so, but I asked the question about the penalty at half-time and he says ‘we have no VAR’.“We don’t get the red card in the second half when it’s a horrendous tackle, it’s an absolute shocker, red card all day long – but the excuse is that they don’t have VAR.“But I was on the understanding that if VAR shuts down, if we didn’t have VAR, then the referee referees the game,