Gus: Tonet victim of rough justice

Aug 25 2008 Paisley Daily Express

GUS MacPherson reckoned Saint-turned-sinner Tonet got the thin end of the wedge during Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Hearts at Tynecastle.

The Catalan midfielder was red carded for two bookable offences in the first half, which meant his Buddies had to play the remainder of the game with 10-men.

But MacPherson feels the Saints new boy was a victim of rough justice and claimed there won’t be many players left on the field of play if SPL referees follow the letter of the law like Calum Murray did.

Disappointed MacPherson hinted that Saturday’s match official could have used more common sense during the incident.

The Buddies left-sided player was given his marching orders for two cautions – inside the space of three minutes.

Tonet, 29, picked up a caution after 22 minutes for a foul on Jason Thomson, then he was involved in a tackle from behind on Jambos star Michael Stewart, prompting his second yellow card.

MacPherson, though, feels referee Murray could have dealt with the player more leniently.

The Saints boss said: “By the letter of the law you will probably say they were yellow cards.

“But if there is going to be challenges like that being punished, then we are going to book every single player for every challenge and we won’t be left with many players on the park.

“It would have been suffice if the referee had a quiet word because the second incident happened so quickly after the first challenge.

“He could have spoken to Tonet and said ‘that’s it’ but the officials will look at the incidents and say they were entitled to give two yellow cards.”

Jamie Mole put Hearts into the lead with a wonder strike seconds before the break.

But brave Saints fought back in the second half and Billy Mehmet levelled the scores following a well-worked move with 20 minutes remaining.

However, Michael Stewart scored what proved to be the winning goal five minutes later when he converted a penalty after Franco Miranda brought down Andrew Driver in the box.

And MacPherson believes his Buddies never quite recovered from a poor start to the game.

He said: “I think we made it very difficult for ourselves with the way we started the game.

“Even before we went down to 10 men, Hearts had two or three real good chances to score and take the lead. Ultimately, when you start a game like that, it's always going to be difficult.

“We went down to 10 men but we worked so hard and we thought we’d stuck to the task but then we go and concede a goal just before half-time and it was a real tough job to try to get that belief back in them.”

MacPherson, though, insisted there were some positives to take from Saturday’s game.

He said: “The manner in which we worked we can look upon as a positive, especially when we went down to 10 men. We could very easily have capitulated but in the second half, Hearts only really created chances when we changed our shape to try to get back into the game.

“We made the changes a wee bit earlier than we had hoped to but the changes did have an affect, there’s no doubt about that.

“If we just kept it at 1-1 for bit longer, then I think some frustration would have crept into Hearts.”

Hearts blew a great chance to make the game safe when they were awarded a penalty a minute into stoppage time but Mark Howard pulled off a magnificent stop to deny Stewart his second goal.

And Saints almost nicked a point right at the death when Mehmet guided a header agonisingly wide of the left-hand post.

Gus said: "We nearly nicked something when Franco Miranda put in a fantastic cross and Billy Mehmet got a clean head on it.

“But he probably didn’t realise where his bearings were and if that shot hit the target, it’s a goal.”

l Turn to Page 17 for full match report.