Derek McInnes felt referee Steven McLean had strayed from new guidelines when he failed to award Aberdeen a penalty in their 1-0 loss at St Mirren.
McInnes was adamant that Ryan Flynn’s handball from a Ryan Hedges cross should have resulted in a spot-kick for the Dons regardless of whether it was intentional or not in line with changes brought in by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) over the summer.
He said: “It was a penalty with last year’s rules and it’s even more of a penalty with the new rules that we were told about at the referees’ meeting two weeks ago.
“Steven McLean gave me his take on it. It’s obviously different than mine and also different to what we were told at that meeting. I think there was enough distance for that to be a clear penalty.”
St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin admitted his team had been fortunate but felt his goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky would have saved the penalty in any case.
He said: “I haven’t seen it back but I’m led to believe it was a penalty.
“If that’s the case then we got the rub of the green, which is great. Derek will be disappointed if that was the case but I would have backed Vaclav to save it anyway.”
The victory was St Mirren’s first of the new SPFL season and came courtesy of Ilkay Durmus’ 13th-minute strike.
Goodwin praised his players for their commitment and effort, and added: “Somebody said a few weeks ago that we are soft. But I think the boys have shown that they are anything but soft.
“Aberdeen put balls in your box all the time and we had to stand up and be counted. But each and every one of my players did that.”
Aberdeen striker Sam Cosgrove missed the game with a hamstring injury and is a doubt for the second leg of their Europa League third qualifying round tie against Rijeka on Thursday night.
McInnes said: “Sam reported it (on Saturday) and we tried to give him every chance of playing but he just felt it was becoming more of an issue. We decided not to bring him with us and stay back and get treatment in Aberdeen.
“He’ll get scanned (on Monday) and he is touch and go for Thursday.
“Clearly, any team would miss someone in Sam’s form. I hope he’s going to be okay for Thursday but at this stage, it’s not clear yet.”
