Who’d be a referee, eh? Certainly not me. My one attempt at officiating the beautiful game at my son’s sixth birthday party ended in ugly scenes that were only quelled by the swift introduction of a Costco cake.

As we all know, the men in the middle have a difficult task, and they receive inordinate amounts of criticism and abuse in the process of carrying out their duties. But boy, sometimes, officials can make it hard to mount them much of a defence.

Take Craig Thomson’s performance in this game between St Johnstone and Motherwell, where the visitors were eventually reduced to eight men, with two of those red cards set to be appealed.

The first of those, for goalkeeper Trevor Carson after apparently handling outside of his area, was the major turning point of this encounter.

The home side, who now sit top of the league at this early stage, had taken a two-goal lead early on through a Steven MacLean goal and what is fast becoming a trademark Michael O’Halloran run and finish off the left wing. Motherwell were unhappy about a foul given to Murray Davidson in the build-up to the opener which looked a strange decision to say the least, but it turned out to be a mere footnote to what was to come.

An Andy Rose header from a Carl McHugh free-kick had halved the deficit, and Motherwell started the second half with the lion’s share of possession as they probed for an equaliser. Then Cedric Kipre attempted to shepherd a long ball back to his keeper, and with David Wotherspoon making an attempt to get near the ball, Carson decided to pick it up near the edge of his area. A risky move, but to say definitively in real time that he was outside of the box was a bold call, and one with game-changing consequences in the opinion of ‘Well midfielder Chris Cadden.

“At 2-1 if anyone was going to go and win the game it would have been us,” Cadden said. “But the red card against Trevor is a big decision.”

Within seconds, Motherwell’s media team were able to produce video replays to show that Carson appeared to pick the ball up on the line, and therefore inside his area. Further to that, they showed that it would be quite the stretch to suggest that he was denying Wotherspoon a clear goalscoring opportunity.

It all begs the question as to why our referees don’t have the benefit of reviewing such incidents. If press men can be reviewing decisions instantaneously, then why not our officials? It is known that the SFA’s head of refereeing John Fleming is a huge supporter of video assistant referees, and for matter of fact decisions like this one, surely we have to give our officials all the help we can to get such big calls correct?

Back to the game, where St Johnstone’s returning hero Michael O’Halloran cut in from the left yet again past a series of challenges to fire low past substitute goalkeeper Russell Griffiths and deliver a killer third goal for the home side.

There was still time for ‘Well skipper McHugh to be ordered off for a second bookable offence, an unnecessarily forceful tackle on Brian Easton that won’t be appealed despite Motherwell feeling the decision was harsh.

Charles Dunne was then ordered off for a trip on Graham Cummins in the area, although again the attending journalists could quickly review the incident to see that the striker’s fall had more to do with him kicking the turf than the big defender. Craig Thomson had no such benefit though, and off Dunne went.

O’Halloran blotted his copybook as Griffiths saved his spot kick, but Davidson added a well-taken fourth in injury-time to rub salt in Motherwell’s wounds.

It would be wrong if O’Halloran’s exciting start to life back at St Johnstone is lost in the discussions over referees. Defenders know that he is going to cut inside, but at the pace he moves, there is precious little they can do about it. His speed is such that they can either get nowhere near him, or are scared to apply a challenge as the slightest touch will knock him over.

For striker Steven MacLean, his mate is even better for his often bruising experience at Rangers.

“He has maybe learned a bit from his time at Ibrox,” MacLean said. “He has gone and worked hard on his game when things haven’t been going well for him.

“I also think he appreciates us in the dressing room more now – and how hard we work for him.

“There will probably be Rangers fans watching his goals and looking to get him back, especially after getting beat 3-2 from Hibs.

“But we will let them worry about Rangers. We are just happy to have him.”