Hibs manager Nick Montgomery lamented the key decisions that went against his side in their contentious 2-0 Scottish Cup defeat to Rangers.
The Easter Road side finished the game with nine-men following two red-cards in three minutes as Jordan Obita and Nathan Moriah-Welsh were dismissed.
Martin Boyle also had to go to hospital with suspected concussion after a clash with Rangers defender John Souttar in the opening period.
“Jordan is an experienced player so, if he has done something that is deemed a yellow card, you don’t want that,” said the Hibs boss.
“Nathan is just 21 years old, he’s new to first team football. And, to be honest, it was right in front of me.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for John Lundstram. He’s a top, top player. But I though the way he went down, Nathan didn’t catch him.
“I’ve seen that one back and he’s gone across him to try to block him playing a ball down the line, probably knock it out for a throw-in. But John has gone down.
“And the referee was very quick to give the card. To be honest, I was really surprised he didn’t go to the VAR monitor to have a look, considering it was three metres from where the incident happened.
“There’s just sometimes a bit of inconsistency, looking at decisions.
“We can talk about whether it’s a penalty or whether it’s not a penalty. A couple of weeks ago, against Celtic, we had the exact same incident with Martin Boyle – a quick winger running inside, the fullback chasing, any contact … but Martin gets a yellow card and we get a penalty given against us today.
“You see incidents like that – and it does just baffle you at times. Obviously he’s slowed down to initiate the contact from Jordan. I can’t say whether it was or wasn’t a penalty – but it wasn’t a penalty for us a few weeks ago and it was a penalty tonight. That’s disappointing.”
Montgomery, however, was pleased with aspects of the performance.
“But I can’t take anything away from the boys’ effort today,” he said. “Some of the football we played was very good.
“We’re disappointed not to get to a semi-final. But I thought the fans appreciated the effort. They probably deserved a better cup tie.
“The officials probably had a bit of a bad day today, to be honest. But we all have bad days. Unfortunately that today, it’s just disappointing.
“There’s no point in speaking to them. I think we’ve had a lot of calls go against us the last couple of weeks, and one or two apologies, but there’s no point in speaking to them today. It’s not going to change anything.
“I’ll need to look at the incidents again, but I’m focusing on the positives, the fact we played really good football, created good chancres – and could have score a couple of goals. It wasn’t to be.”
