Dundee boss Tony Docherty praises Willie Collum for ‘honesty’ over penalty call

Tony Docherty thanked referees supremo Willie Collum for phoning to say Dundee should have had a penalty against Ross County on Saturday.

The Dens Park side were trailing by two goals in Dingwall when striker Simon Murray went down under Kacper Lopata’s challenge in the County box but there was no spot-kick for the visitors and the home side ran out 2-0 winners.

While frustrated to be deprived of the penalty, Dundee boss Docherty praised

Scottish Football Association’s head of referee operations Collum for his approach, telling the Taysiders’ official website: “I’ve got to be really thankful for Willie Collum, who I have praised before in previous weeks,

“He phoned me yesterday to tell me he’d watched it back himself.

“I won’t get any absolute details about the conversation that we had, but we had an absolute stonewall penalty in the 55th minute against Simon Murray which can change the outcome of the game and I’m disappointed with that obviously.

“Regardless of how the team performs, you need things to go for you and that didn’t go for us.

“I appreciate massively Willie’s honesty and openness and that’s the way I think it should be.

“Previously, there was a decision that maybe should have gone against us in the derby, which I agreed with.

“This one should have gone for us but we never got the decision. But, again, I’m really thankful for Willie phoning me.

“I think we have got to see that transparency going forward. I thank him for phoning me and letting me know that the right decision was to award a penalty in the 55th minute which would have got us into the game.”