'Told he was on leave' - Hearts manager Robbie Neilson has say on Crawford Allan and booking against Livingston

Robbie Neilson is booked by Kevin Clancy.

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson says he is yet to hear back from Crawford Allan after the he contacted the referees chief over decisions made in Thursday’s 1-0 defeat by Celtic and admitted his dismay at hearing him discuss incidents in the media.

Neilson was left furious by Kyogo Furuhashi’s offside goal at Celtic Park, but in particular referee Bobby Madden deciding to stop play when Jota went down with a hamstring injury despite Hearts being in a good attacking position.

Neilson revealed that he tried to contact Allan, who is the head of referees at the SFA, only to be told that he is on annual leave and hadn’t watched the game. However, Allan went on BBC Radio Scotland on Saturday to speak on the issues.

“It’s disappointing,” said Neilson. “I’m still trying to get hold of him. I don’t know why. I was told he was on annual leave until next Friday and that he hadn’t watched the game.

“But then the next day he’s on the radio talking about it and explaining the reasons behind it.

“I make mistakes. Referees make mistakes. All you want is a reason for why things have been given. Then you can take that on board and feed it back to your players.

“That’s why you try to speak to referees. But if you are getting nothing back it’s difficult and then if you have to listen to it in the media it’s not great is it?

“I’m sure I’ll get a phone call at some point. This week? I’ll not hold my breath.”

Neilson picked up a yellow card in the 1-0 win over Livingston and admitted dismay at the reasoning from referee Kevin Clancy.

“I have no idea what it was for. They don’t speak to you any more,” added Neilson.

“They just come up to card you!

“I asked what it was for and he said dissent or something. But I never actually shouted at anyone! It’s just the way it’s going now.”

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