Amid all the post-match profanities in the wake of referee Crawford Allan's controversial decision to red card Chris Hogg, an important question may have been missed: would Tom Hateley's free kick not have hit the back of the Ryan Esson's net regardless of whether Inverness Caledonian Thistle's centre-back had been on the pitch?

AMID all the post-match profanities in the wake of  referee Crawford Allan’s controversial decision to red card Chris Hogg, an important question may have been missed: would Tom Hateley’s free kick not have hit the back of the Ryan Esson’s net regardless of whether Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s centre-back had been on the pitch?

It was impossible to find anyone who disagreed with the assertion that the home side deserved to chalk up their third league win in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League this season.

But they allowed Motherwell to equalise twice, Shaun Hutchinson and Keith Lasley both cancelling out strikes from David Davis and the impressive Andrew Shinnie.

Hogg’s trip on Jamie Murphy, however, brought him a red card for denying a goalscoring opportunity, despite Ross Tokely and Kenny Gillet being in the neighbourhood and Terry Butcher, the Inverness manager, will with some justification complain that the decision was wrong, though Hateley’s resultant 25-yard free kick was a match winner to remember.

“It was poor, to be honest,” said Keith Lasley, the veteran Motherwell midfielder. “Once Inverness got their second goal and went 2-1 up, had the game finished there nobody could really have had any complaints.

“It shows a bit of character I suppose, though the actual performance was unacceptable. Sometimes results go for you and we’ve been in Inverness’ shoes before. When you’re down there, the breaks seem to go against you. At the moment, we seem to be getting some of the breaks.”

It was a mark of Butcher’s assessment of his side’s performance that he ensured a pat on the back for every player as he left the pitch, not to mention a scowl in the direction of Mr Allan.

“Every one of the players on the pitch, in the dug-out and the manager felt it was a really poor decision,” said Shinnie, who turned in yet another impressive performance for the Highland side. “We feel Ross Tokely and Kenny Gillet were covering and Murphy was 20 to 25 yards out from goal, so it was not exactly a clear scoring opportunity.

“You get talks about respecting referees which is fair enough, and we take it board. We respect the referees and we talk to them the way we should but on days like this it is hard to understand. If referees want respect from us we need to get it back. We feel a poor decision has cost us on the day.”

Regardless of Inverness letting three points slip away from them, the character displayed by the visitors to twice come from behind is testament to Stuart McCall, the Motherwell manager.

Despite struggling for long spells, they continued to show a resilience that has hoisted them to second place in the SPL table, with Sunday’s match against Celtic a true test of their mettle. However, the Motherwell manager knows they will need to improve if Sunday is to be a success.

“It was a massive win for us, even if we didn’t deserve the three points,” said McCall. “I feel for Terry Butcher and Inverness as they gave everything for their manager, but they do say it’s a sign of a good team when you don’t play well, yet still manage to win.”

Despite Motherwell losing Steven Hammell through injury, it was Inverness who finished the game wounded. Some might argue that those wounds were self-inflicted.