Jim Goodwin slams penalty award as ‘poor’ after Dundee United held by Motherwell

Boss Jim Goodwin hit out at the decision to award the penalty that cost Dundee United dear in a 1-1 draw against Motherwell at Tannadice.

Referee Ryan Lee had initially given a free-kick for offside in the early stages of the game.

However, he was then advised by VAR Andrew Dallas to have another look at an incident where Tawanda Maswanhise had gone down in the United box under a challenge by home skipper Dylan Tait.

After checking the pitchside monitor, the whistler pointed to the spot with Motherwell captain Lukas Fadinger tucking the penalty away.

The Terrors ultimately salvaged a point thanks to a Jesse Randall goal but Goodwin insisted his side should have had all three.

He said: “It’s a poor decision for me. I know it’s going to be subjective and people will have their own opinions on it, but I don’t know what Dylan Tait is meant to do.

“We all know Maswanhise runs at pace, he’s driving at the defender and I think he’s going down before the contact arrives.

“Dylan is pulling out and I just don’t understand what a defender is meant to do in that situation.

“The linesman initially was giving an offside but neither he or the ref thought there was a foul in that particular instance.

“We were happy with that but when VAR check it there’s not the offside and they decide to carry on the check into the penalty incident.

“I need to be careful what I say because I got in trouble a few years ago talking about players going over easily in the penalty area.

“But I think a bit of experience, knowing the type of players you’re dealing with, the referee at that moment made the right call.

“When the referee got called to the monitor, you have an experienced referee there basically telling a young ref he’s made a mistake.

“So it takes a bit of courage for the ref on the park to overrule that decision from the VAR room. It’s gone against us but we reacted positively.”

Not surprisingly, Motherwell manager Alfred Johansson disagreed with Goodwin’s assessment of the penalty decision and instead insisted it should have been awarded.

The 36-year-old said: “I haven’t watched it back with a close-up on the situation in the box yet but the way I saw it JT (Maswanhise) is running at high speed into the box. He’s on the ball and gets down from a tackle, and it’s a penalty.

“So it depends on who you ask. None of us can complain with the draw, it was a very tight game. It was very open but definitely fair with the draw.”