NEIL McCann hit out at referee Alan Muir for choosing not to give Dundee a late penalty in their loss to Motherwell at Dens Park, writes Neil Faskin.

Substitute A-Jay Leitch-Smith’s shot was blocked by Motherwell’s Cedric Kipre in added time and McCann felt the big Frenchman had handled his effort.

The Dundee manager complained afterwards: “It was a stonewaller. It clearly struck him in the arm. If he’s saying that his assistant referee said it hit him on the arm, why’s it not a penalty?

“How do you swallow that one? For me, it’s very poor officiating.

“It makes me so angry because that would have given us an opportunity to get the equaliser and maybe even another one because we showed against Partick the week before we don’t need a lot of time to get a goal.

“I feel we’ve been robbed of an opportunity to get a result.

“I thought we absolutely dominated the match and were the only team looking to win the match.

“We had some great chances so it is very frustrating.”

Craig Tanner’s 33rd-minute strike, his fourth against Dundee this season, won the contest for Motherwell.

The early stages were not pleasing on the eye. While Paul McGowan took too long to shoot and lost an oppor-tunity, the only real chance before the goal was scored fell to Dundee’s Tunisian forward Sofien Moussa.

He sent a volley from a Roarie Deacon corner just past the post, with Motherwell goalkeeper Trevor Carson scrambling. Soon afterwards, 23-year-old Motherwell midfielder Tanner knocked in his ninth goal of the season, finishing at the back post after a low cross from Curtis Main.

Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson said that while he believes his side can play football, the three points they gained at Dens Park all stemmed from their steely resolve.

“We’ve got individuals who can win games but here our character and resilience won it for us here,” he said.

“If I was a Motherwell fan going back down the road having seen those players throwing themselves to the ground and putting their bodies on the line to win, I’d be very happy.

“We can play a lot better than that on the ball.

“But when you have games like that you have to dig deep so I give them top marks for that side of things.”

Dundee improved after the interval but could not avoid slumping to a fourth successive defeat at Dens Park, with their best chances falling to defenders.

Centre-back Genseric Kusunga blasted over from close range when it looked easier to score and Josh Meekings went close with a header.

When the hosts did get a forward within shooting range, Simon Murray was denied by the impressive Carson after skipping past the Northern Irishman’s defence.

Deep into stoppage time came Dundee’s vehement calls for a penalty, but as the home players surrounded Muir, McCann was left furious on the touchline as his team slipped down a place to ninth.