THE pain of heartbreak can often last longer than the joy of victory.
Stuart McCall, the Motherwell manager, yesterday admitted that his defeats haunt him more than his triumphs linger. Wednesday night's cup loss against 10-man Aberdeen was another to add his bitter collection; one that hurt even more because John Sutton appeared to have scored a legitimate goal, which was then disallowed.
McCall - speaking at lunchtime - revealed he would seek clarification, concerned about exactly who had adjudged Sutton to be offside, although he stressed he was visiting the national stadium yesterday afternoon for other business.
"It's the sickest I've ever felt [after the game]," he admitted. "It makes it all the sorer when it happens in the big games. My first reaction was to look at the linesman. And he's not put his flag up. We've gone over and celebrated, there's a delay, [Referee] John [Beaton] is speaking to somebody. The linesman then puts his flag up and the decisions given.
"If he's offside, the natural reaction for a linesman is to put his flag up. So I don't know if the linesman has given the decision. Who has given the decision, has the referee given it or has the fourth official given it? That's all I'm looking for clarification for.
"It's an easy one because Mark Reynolds [the Aberdeen defender] is stood on the six-yard line. And when you see it, it's not a difficult decision; the linesman is on it and he doesn't give it. So that makes it all the more galling. I don't know if it's John that's given it or if it's even the fourth official that's given it.
"Now I'm not saying that's happened. That's what I'm getting clarified. Because I know Derek [McInnes, Aberdeen manager] and Tony [Docherty, his assistant] were screaming at the fourth official. He's miked up to the referee. The linesman is still stood with his arms down. I just want to know who made the decision."
McCall can take some small crumb of comfort in that tomorrow's opponents, Hibernian, suffered a similarly devastating cup loss to city rivals Hearts, and that their squad will be also in need of lifting by caretaker manager Jimmy Nicholl. "It's a small straw to clutch," he said. "But that was the only light at the end of the tunnel the other night. You start thinking 'who have you got next?' and it's Hibs. After I saw the first half hour, it looked like a matter of time before Hibs would score. And then when someone said Hearts had won . . . they won't be coming here full of the joys and bouncing.
"Though they'll get over it, I'm sure. A couple of wins and you're back up again. It's about winning, and I know come Sunday we'll be focused on winning."
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