Levein hits out at referee

23rd November 2008

Dundee United manager Craig Levein furiously hit out at the tactics of Hamilton and accused referee Crawford Allan of losing control of what he described as a "farcical" 1-1 draw at Tannadice.

Levein insisted bottom side Accies arrived on Tayside intent on kicking the home side in an ultra-defensive and overly-physical display.

With confusion surrounding the scorer of his side's injury-time equaliser, Levein also confessed he hoped it had come from the boot of visiting defender Brian Easton, as it would have been just rewards for what he said had been time wasting from as early as the 15th minute.

Levein admitted Billy Reid's outfit had every right to set out their own game plan, which was aided by Richard Offiong's ninth-minute opener. However, the former Hearts and Scotland defender claimed Allan, who sent off Simon Mensing with eight minutes remaining, should have given the home side far more protection before Easton's own goal sealed a late point.

He said: "If my team were down at the bottom end of the table and we were not getting points I would be entitled to put out my team to frustrate and play 3-6-1 and play as many players in my half as I want. Billy's entitled to do that, I've no problems with that, but please don't tell me it's great football.

"They came here to spoil and they had five fouls in the first two minutes of the game which the referee didn't do anything about, and that set the pattern for what turned out to be an incredibly uncontrolled affair. Their game plan worked, they play 3-6-1, get in people's faces and kick them, when the ball's in the air they jump into them. If the referee doesn't do anything about it then fine, they'll get away with it. That set the pattern for the game and it lasted from the first minute to the fifth minute of injury time."