Thursday 11 October 2018 23:36, UK
Scotland boss Alex McLeish felt defender John Souttar was hard done by after being sent-off for two fouls on Israel striker Moanes Dabour.
Scotland squandered a half-time lead to lose 2-1 to Israel in their Nations League Group C1 clash on Thursday in Haifa.
Charlie Mulgrew's penalty after 25 minutes gave the visitors the advantage but the hosts levelled in the 52nd minute through midfielder Dor Peretz before defender Kieran Tierney turned a cross from Beram Kayal past his own goalkeeper, Allan McGregor, with 16 minutes remaining.
Souttar, booked in the first half for a foul on Dabbur, picked up a second yellow for catching the same player in the face with his hand on the edge of the box in the 61st minute.
McLeish felt the referee fell for Dabbur's "wily" actions and revealed he was about to take Souttar off moments before he was dismissed.
"John had a great debut last month and I thought it was a really, really harsh decision," he told Sky Sports.
"The referee was about 40 yards away - he wasn't close to it at all, I don't know if he had a signal from somebody else. John has put his arm up to protect himself, players do that and Dabbur milked it.
"The striker is clever. We said before the game that Dabbur is a wily striker and he's stuck his foot in front of John and it's looked like John's kicked him. You can only see these things in analysis - that's when you can see the real thing.
"We were trying to get John off as he had an injury - he was complaining about his hip at half-time. Charlie Mulgrew had already come off at half-time so that had disrupted the momentum. Just as we was about to make the substitution and go to a back four, John got sent-off. You couldn't make it up, it was an absolute travesty."
