Dundee United midfielder Paul Paton has launched a renewed attack on the panel that banned him for an offence that the alleged victim said he did not commit, suggesting that he may have been victimised for choosing to represent Northern Ireland rather than the country of his birth.
After helping his team to a 2-1 victory over Aberdeen in Saturday's QTS League Cup semi-final at Hampden the Paisley-born 27-year-old could not have been more scathing in pouring contempt on the decision of the men who found him guilty of spitting at Jonny Hayes during Dundee United when the club's last met in December, calling it "an absolute joke."
Paton also seemed to question the competency of the panel which sat in judgement upon him and effectively ignored Hayes' evidence after the Aberdeen player stated categorically on social media that: "Paul Paton never spat on me."
"To get suspended for something that the two teams have never seen, the two managers have never seen, two sets of fans have never seen and everybody watching the video has never seen. For three guys who have never played football to sit there and say I did that, I'll never forgive them for that," said Paton.
His frustration is such that he raised what some are likely to dismiss as a conspiracy theory by connecting the finding by a group operating under Scottish Football Association jurisdiction with his decision, last year, to turn his back on Scotland and represent Northern Ireland for which he qualifies through his Larne-born father.
"I don't know if it's maybe... I chose to play for Northern Ireland. I don't know what the script is, but I'm certainly not happy with that. I think it's an absolute joke to be honest," he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article