Things started well with a delightful goal after absorbing some early pressure. Then it all went pear shaped. There is no disputing that Aberdeen were the better side and we were generally below par, but it really is sad to see a side resort to the level of gamesmanship that Aberdeen did today. Of course, teams can only get away with it if the officials let them - and boy did they let them today.
I don't usually like to criticise referees because they have a very difficult job to do and have to make difficult decisions in a split second. Clearly they will get things wrong at times. But there really can be no excuses for Clancy today. Apart from his failure to stop Aberdeen's antics, he made the most appalling decisions in relation to two episodes in the 2nd half.
In the first of these, Maddison was dispossessed deep in our half. He went down and stayed down. In fact it looked as if he was praying to Mecca. We broke forward with some of our best play of the game. We were heading towards the edge of their box with Aberdeen struggling to cover when Clancy decides to stop the game for Maddison. But although he stopped the game, he didn't call the Aberdeen Physio on. Maddison didn't need any treatment and soon trotted off without any sign of being hurt. If Clancy wasn't going to call the physio on to treat Maddison there was absolutely no reason to stop the game.
Just a few minutes later, just inside our own half, Shinnie hacked down Mackay and Clancy didn't even give a foul. He waved play on and then actually ran past a clearly distressed Mackay to keep up with the play. Fortunately Aberdeen's attack came to nothing. OFW then kicked the ball out of play before Clancy took notice of our injured player. Unlike the cheating Maddison, Mackay didn't get up and trot off. Instead he had to be stretchered off.
These two incidents are not simple mistakes, instead they represent utter incompetence.
It is easy to to fault the players when they have a bit of an off day, but it can't be easy playing when you have such incompetent refereeing. Yes, we were 2nd best today, but it might have been a very different game with a different referee.
Rant over