ROBBIE Neilson last night accused referee Willie Collum of only sending off Hearts right-back Callum Paterson after being influenced by the reaction of the Hamilton players to his challenge on Darian Mackinnon.

Neilson’s side lost their 100 per cent record in the Ladbrokes Premiership and were leapfrogged by both Celtic and Aberdeen at the top of the league table after losing 3-2 in an explosive encounter at New Douglas Park.

The Tynecastle head coach, though, was furious with the match official for his decision to show Paterson a straight red card shortly after he had given the visitors a 2-1 lead.

Mackinnon and his Hamilton team-mates surrounded Paterson, who required medical treatment as a result of the incident, as he lay on the artificial turf in a major flashpoint during the second half.

Collum, who showed no fewer than nine yellow cards during the course of the game, ordered the player off when he had recovered and got back to his feet.

Martin Canning’s side took advantage of their numerical advantage; they quickly drew level through Ali Crawford and then secured the victory when Jesus Garcia Tena netted with three minutes remaining.

However, Neilson, who revealed Hearts had trained with 10 men at Riccarton this week after learning Collum would be taking charge of the match, felt the referee had been swayed by the actions of the home team.

“I’ve seen a replay of it already and I don’t think it is a sending off,” he said. “I think Callum has come in from the side and he has hooked his foot around and the boy has come over the top of him. For me it is not a red, but the referee makes the decision. For me, it is a total game-changer.

“We go 1-0 down, then 2-1 up and I thought we were quite comfortable at that point. We changed shape to see the game out and then the referee makes a decision which totally changes the flow of the game. We try to hang on for a draw and don’t make it.

“At the time, I didn’t think it was a red, but I think the referee has reacted to the reactions after the incident and I think he has gone on that, to send someone off to try and get a bit of order.

Hearts midfielder Jamie Walker had required treatment during the first half of the game after a high challenge by Antons Kurakins for which the Hamilton player received a yellow.

“I think that one is worse,” said Neilson. “It was high and over the ball. It is difficult for the players to take. We are sitting at the top of the league, we are working hard and then the referee makes a decision like that and changes the game, which we end up losing. We are going to have to use it as motivation in training to go again.

“I tried to speak with him [Collum], but he doesn’t listen to you. I spoke to him and the referee’s adviser was in there as well. I could say a lot of things about him, but I don’t want to say too much because I’ll end up in the stand and I don’t want to do that.

“We looked at the stats during the week. Every game we get a referee and we look at the stats and what way they referee the game. All of them referee differently. This game with the officials we were getting, we knew there was a high probability of a man being sent off and it’s happened again.

“We tried to train with 10 men, but we didn’t get our gameplan going because of when it happened, who came off, it made it difficult for us. It’s happened now and I hope it doesn’t happen again.

“Other referees have high sending-off rates as well, but it is difficult for the players to accept and difficult for us to accept having worked so hard. The next time we get the referee we had today we will need to do the same training again and hope that we can keep to our game plan when we go down to 10 men.”

Hearts had cancelled out the opening Hamilton goal from Gramoz Kurtaj just before half-time with two strikes from Billy King and Paterson in the second half – a fact which probably contributed to Neilson’s unhappiness.

“I didn’t see the sending off,” said Canning. “It happened so quickly. I’ll need to watch it back. The reaction from the players tells me it probably was a red card, but I’d need to see it myself to comment. I thought the attitude of our own players was spot on. We managed to be professional and solid. Quite a few people said the red card was the turning point, and you could say yes because we came back into the game from there but I thought the boys’ attitude was different class all the way through.”