Levein blasts 'ridiculous' ref

Scotland boss thinks his team deserved more in Kaunas

Last updated: 4th September 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

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Scotland manager Craig Levein branded the refereeing of his side's 0-0 draw in Lithuania as 'ridiculous'.

The former Dundee United boss was forced to settle for a point in the Euro 2012 qualifying opener, his first competitive match in charge of the national team, despite a dominant display.

But he was disappointed that Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakira did not take authority in the Group I encounter in Kaunas.

Levein felt the hosts set out to interrupt the flow of the game with numerous fouls, which only resulted in three yellow cards.

Scotland had Lee McCulloch and Scott Brown booked, while Alan Hutton reacted angrily to a bad foul by Kestutis Ivaskevicius in the final stages.

Disappointment

"The biggest disappointment was, whenever we got any momentum, it was free-kick after free-kick," Levein said.

"Guys in their team had five or six fouls and didn't get booked. It baffled me that they only ended up with three bookings.

"It was ridiculous. The challenge at the end on Alan Hutton was outrageous.

"I think it must have been a plan that whenever we got any momentum they gave away a foul. That's frustrating - Brown got booked for his first foul.

"It was a tactic - there is not a lot we can do about it but it's important the referee looks after that side of the game."

Pleasing factor

Levein added: "The way the game panned out I think we deserved more, but I'm not disappointed because we got a point away from home.

"I said when the group was drawn that our nearest challengers for second place would be Lithuania and Czech Republic and we have picked up a point against one of them away from home.

"It's not the end of the world - we were the better side and just lacked a goal. The biggest pleasing factor was the effort the players put in.

"It was important we showed everyone over here and back home that we really are proud to be involved in the Scottish national team."

Comments (5)

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John Brown (Arbroath fan) says...

Another disappointing result in my opinion. We could have played until tuesday and still not found the back of the net. Here''s hoping for plenty of goals on tuesday though.

Posted 11:26 4th September 2010

John Chilton says...

Same old scotland pull the blue jersey over your head and all the skill disapears no heart no skill no euros ???

Posted 10:44 4th September 2010

Martin Green (Newcastle United fan) says...

What is the point of football if the ref is a waste of space? It sounds like the Lithuanians tactics were the same as Holland in the world cup. The sending off rule needs to be changed; any number of players can be sent off, giving the ref more freedom to book players. If 4/5 players are sent off, teams not playing the game will get thrashed and deservedly so!

Posted 10:31 4th September 2010

Grant Hutton (Accrington Stanley fan) says...

"I''m not disappointed, we got a point" Think this sums up the mentality of every scotland manager since walter smith. Why are we terrified to play the game, why do we think we are this world class defensive unit with a blistering counter attack. We can''t defend well and we have the players to attack yet we never, never set ourselves up to try and score a goal. We always defend and hang on for dear life and hope that we get lucky and score. What was mccullochs role last night? Our best attcking option was Alan, run into culdesac, Hutton., Why do we never go 442 and try and win a game. Boyd and miller up front, Can you actually tell me some of the chances last night, Boyd wouldn''t have buried at least one?? Watching Scotland is depressing, boring waste of time these days. We all know the feeling, at work, just before we find out the team. We all know we''re gonna play 4-5-1 and defend for dear life. Our game is dying on it''s knees, it''s not a spectacle that I really want to waste 2 hrs of my life watching anymore. Sad but resigned

Posted 10:22 4th September 2010

Keiran S (Aberdeen fan) says...

As a happy Scot with a point well earned, i cant agree with him more. Lithuania i was expecting to give us a good game but the amount of free kicks we were given was really frustrating. In the first half almost every time we got the ball up the park, we ended up with a free kick. Keep it up on Tuesday!!

Posted 08:39 4th September 2010
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