MOTHERWELL striker John Sutton jumped to the defence of St Mirren's Franco Miranda after his sending off at Fir Park.
Miranda was given a red card 20 minutes from the end of Motherwell's 2-1 victory on Saturday after an assistant referee signalled he had used an elbow in a tussle with Sutton.
However, Sutton, who was on the scoresheet against his former si
de, said: "I didn't think by any means that it was a red card. There wasn't a lot in it. I had my arm out to give myself a little bit of space and I think his reaction to push my arm away was maybe a little bit over the top, but it wasn't a big problem.
"It wasn't anywhere near the face and I don't think there was any harm intended. Obviously they were a bit frustrated but I think the referee could just have spoken to him and told him to calm down a bit."
Sutton scored early in the second half when he was given the space to head home a corner from Steven Hammell. That goal cancelled out Billy Mehmet's opener for St Mirren, with midfielder Bob Malcolm then netting Motherwell's winner just after the hour when he bundled in another corner from Hammell.
It was the first home victory of the season for Mark McGhee's team, ahead of their Uefa Cup first-round second-leg tie at home on Thursday to French outfit Nancy, who lost 2-1 at the weekend to Ligue 1 champions Lyon.
Sutton said: "My goal came from a good ball in by Stevie Hammell. I probably misheaded it, as I headed it on to my shoulder so it looped up and in, and I was slightly lucky in that respect.
"However, early in the first half I had a chance which I met perfectly – probably a bit too well, and the keeper saved it so it was good to see one go in. St Mirren getting the first goal made it hard for us, but we came out in the second half and put in a good performance, and I think the win sets us up nicely for the next couple of games.
"Getting the goal early in the second half was a boost, and we managed to kick on and win, so it stops a bad run of results and turns things around nicely for Thursday and next Sunday against Rangers."
Motherwell had gone into the game on the back of four straight defeats so McGhee was understandably delighted to see his team get back on track. "Given the previous four results, I think there was a wee question mark hanging over them at half-time," said McGhee. "But sometimes these things are good for you because they answered that question so they'll be feeling a bit better about themselves.
"I looked at the clock after five minutes and we should have been ahead at least once, but instead we lost a goal and then it was a three-quarters performance in the first half. As they went back out, we said, 'Now is the time to see who's prepared to stand up and be the one who tries to make it happen', instead of us all standing back and waiting for Jamie Murphy to be the one."
St Mirren manager Gus MacPherson praised Sutton for his frank assessment of the red-card incident, saying: "That's pretty decent of John to admit that.
"We question the honesty of players in terms of those incidents too often, but I appreciate him saying that.
"Franco is adamant that he's done nothing at all other than free himself because John had his hands out trying to use him as leverage. I've been in to see the linesman as the referee didn't see it, he's quite happy for the linesman to deal with it."
MacPherson was disappointed to lose two goals to set-pieces, adding: "There's a mismatch in the physical presence and we have to defend extremely well, especially at set-pieces, but two of them cost us. The manner in which we played in the first half was extremely pleasing, as we created plenty of chances.
"That was maybe the only slight disappointment, that we didn't go in further ahead at half-time. The message then was to try to be as positive as we had been once again, but conceding a goal so early in the second half gave Motherwell the lift to put us under pressure."
The full article contains 760 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
