Happy Hearts after referee makes blunder

JAMES TRAYNOR

9 Jan 1995

Motherwell 1, Hearts 2

CHRIS McCart must be some kind of wonderful player.

There can be no other explanation for what he did yesterday unless, of course, we look to the referee, Louis Thow.

Could he possibly have blundered so badly? Let's consider what happened at Fir Park to have so incensed Motherwell's supporters while causing Hearts' small band to snigger.

The game, which was not very attractive, was stumbling towards 1-1 when, in 79 minutes, McCart moved to intercept an attack.

Stephen Frail had tried to smack the ball into Motherwell's box but failed to beat McCart, who fell when trying to block the delivery.

McCart tumbled and panicked when he saw the ball drop back at his feet, one of which he swung wildly with the intention of sending the ball to safety.

Instead, the ball looped into the air and was carried in the swirling wind over his head towards his own goal.

Steve Woods came off his line and had to leap to clutch the wayward ball.

Motherwell's players were incredulous when they realised that Thow decided McCart had passed the ball back and gave an indirect free kick to Hearts.

It would have been a back pass which Pele could not have executed at the height of his powers, but Thow believed McCart to have achieved the impossible.

It was a bizarre decision and one which should not go without investigation and questions must be asked of the official.

From the free kick, Brian Hamilton's shot was blocked and so, too, was Scott Leitch's effort, but the ball fell to Colin Miller.

His shot was powerful and, although Woods managed to get a touch, the ball dropped into the net.

"There's nothing I can say about the incident," said Alex McLeish, Motherwell's manager.

"I'll only get myself in trouble, but you could say there are a few angry people in our dressing room."

McLeish asked the referee why he had felt McCart deliberately passed the ball back, but he is still waiting for a reply.

The man he succeeded at Fir Park, Tommy McLean, was delighted with his team's victory, but said the crucial goal was the result of inconsistency regarding the pass-back rule.

"No-one seems to know what's going on," he said.

Hearts had gone ahead in 16 minutes when Hamilton capped his debut with a slick goal, but Motherwell's equaliser was better.

Paul McGrillen's shot from 20 yards found the perfect spot in the bottom, left-hand corner of Craig Nelson's net.

However, Motherwell did not deserve a point because they played poorly.

Six players -- Motherwell's Rob McKinnon, John Philliben, and Miodrag Krivokapic and Dave McPherson, Jim Bett, and David Hagen, of Hearts -- were booked, but the real culprit was Thow.

MOTHERWELL -- Woods, McCart, Philliben, Krivokapic, Shannon, Lambert, Davies, McSkimming, McKinnon, McGrillen, Coyne.

Substitutes -- Kirk, Roddie, Howie.

HEARTS -- Nelson, Jamieson, McPherson, Berry, Frail, Hamilton, Bett, Leitch, Miller, Hagen, Thomas.

Substitutes -- Robertson, Mackay, Smith.

Referee -- L Thow (Ayr).

Taken from the Herald