Dundee manager Steven Pressley frustrated by Yan Dhanda two-match ban

Steven Pressley had admitted that he’s disappointed an appeal panel didn’t overturn Yan Dhanda’s red card, and said context is needed when making big decisions.

Dhanda was sent off during his side’s 1-1 draw with Motherwell last weekend after a challenge on Lukas Fadinger.

Referee Calum Scott showed the midfielder a straight red for serious foul play, to the player’s disbelief, and Dundee decided to submit an appeal.

An independent panel upheld the original decision, meaning Dhanda will miss key games against Livingston and St Mirren through suspension.

Pressley was keen to point out that communication with the Scottish FA’s refereeing department was good, but he feels that there is a trend in football to look at decisions in a narrow way that doesn’t fit the game.

He said: “Look, it’s difficult because I think that the one thing about the refereeing situation just now is that they are very open and transparent for us, calling them and asking for answers around certain situations.

“But I think the problem with football in general now is we want everything black and white.

“So ‘that’s a sending off’ or ‘that’s not a sending off’, ‘that’s a handball’ and ‘that’s not’. Sometimes, there needs to be a little bit more context to the situation.

“When you look at the Yan one, yes, he has his foot up, but there was absolutely no intent there to injure the opposing player.

“That’s what we hoped [the appeal panel would take into account]. We hoped that maybe there would be some context to the situation.

“But football, as I’ve said, is getting a little bit black and white and yeah, I don’t think it’s a black and white game.”

Missing Dhanda, who joined on loan from Hearts before the transfer deadline, is a blow, the manager admitted. Pressley said that the midfielder was just beginning to gain shaprness and exert a real influence on games.

“Our first half and our second-half performance were night and day over the weekend, and he was instrumental in that,” he explained.

“He provided us the link from being without the ball, winning the ball and then transitioning to attack and if you look at all our second-half attacking actions, generally he was involved in that part of it where he became our link player, he fed our wide players or our strikers and then we were able to attack.

“Since he came, it’s probably his best 45 minutes of football. People need to remember when Yan came here, he was still behind, he was still searching for the fitness, the match sharpness.

“Slowly but surely, he was getting that. He’s played in some of the games, and he’s also played in a couple of bounce games that we’ve organised because we know he needs to get up to speed.

“We really started to see the real Yan Dhanda in the second half, and just when he’s getting that, it’s going to be taken away from him.

“It’s disappointing.”