Ivanov was the twelfth man for Schalke side says Jambos' defender.

PAUL KIDDIE

RAGING Jamie McAllister today launched a scathing attack on Russian referee Nikolai Ivanov following Hearts’ 1-0 defeat by Schalke at Murrayfield, the defender claiming: "It felt like we were playing against 12 men."

A second-half goal from Brazilian ace Lincoln sent the 10-man Jambos spinning to defeat in the Group A clash, a result which leaves them rooted to the bottom of the table with no points from their first two games and now facing a mountain to climb to qualify.

Patrick Kisnorbo was dismissed in the 47th minute after picking up a second yellow card for diving and McAllister today aimed both barrels at Ivanov after the official’s woeful handling of the game.

"He is the worst referee I have ever seen," said the former Aberdeen and Livingston star.

"He was shocking and his decisions throughout the game were consistently bad.

"Every time we got into the final third of the pitch he would blow for a foul for Schalke whenever a challenge was made. "It happened all over the park and we couldn’t go near them with a free-kick being awarded.

"When the same happened to us he just played on. He was worse than the referee we had against Feyenoord in the last game - and he was bad.

"I know I shouldn’t be saying this but it seemed like we were playing against 12 men last night." The Jambos frustrations at Ivanov’s inconsistency - he also harshly booked Paul Hartley and Robbie Neilson - threatened to boil over towards the end of last night’s tie.

The hosts were up against it after Kisnorbo’s dismissal and an irate McAllister added: "The sending-off was terrible, a crazy decision. Okay, maybe Paddy made a meal of it but the ref should have told him just to get up and get on with it. They were diving about all the time and nothing was ever done about it.

"The red card ruined our chances of getting a result and the boys were absolutely gutted afterwards."

The manner in which Kisnorbo threw himself to the turf was out of character for the combative midfielder and McAllister has jumped to the defence of his team-mate, who apologised to the rest of the players and the management team after the final whistle.

"Paddy didn’t have to apologise for anything as he didn’t do anythig wrong," he said. "I am not blaming the referee for us losing the game as they scored a great goal. I thought we battled well but I it was hard to get back into match with the referee the way he was. I just couldn’t see where his decisions were coming from and we couldn’t talk to him about them either. Every time we tried to he just waved us away and told us: ‘don’t speak to me.’

Hearts now must beat Basel in Switzerland later this month and also Ferencvaros at Murrayfield in the closing match of Group A to stand a chance of qualify and McAllister said: "We were disappointed not to get a win for the new gaffer in his first game but we now need six points out of six and we think we can do that."

Taken from the Scotsman