WEBSTER STANDS UP FOR OFFICIALS

Hearts defender Andy Webster insists the officials had been right to chalk off a late Aberdeen goal in his side's 1-0 Tynecastle win.

Steven Craig's 85th-minute conversion of a Michael Hart cross was ruled out by a linesman's flag and the Dons players were incensed by the decision.

But Webster, who had failed to cut out the cross in the first place, was adamant a touch by goalkeeper Craig Gordon on to a post had meant that John Stewart, who had been in an offside position, was instantly involved in the play.

He told www.heartsfc.co.uk: "I think Craig got a touch on the cross, which means that the boys at the back post are then active.

"So from that point of view the linesman was right to give it."

Dons boss Jimmy Calderwood, who saw Hearts climb above his stuttering side, certainly did not see it that way and the Scottish Football Association's disciplinary committee's ears are likely to have been pricked by his claim that such a decision would not have been made had it been at the other end.

Taken from sportinglife.com