STEPHEN ROBINSON has warned his players that he will not stand for simulation after striker Christy Manzinga was sent off in the midweek defeat to St Johnstone.
Robinson says that referee Nick Walsh got the call spot on when he sent the substitute packing, picking up a second caution for going down too easily in the Saints area as he tried to win a penalty.
All the forward succeeded in doing was leaving his teammates to try and see out the game with 10 men, which they ultimately failed to do as a goal deep into stoppage time condemned the Steelmen to their third league defeat in a row.
While Robinson is resigned to the dark arts being part of football, he has told his players he doesn't like to see them trying to con referees.
"He deserved to be sent off I have no qualms about it," Robinson said. "If it was another player doing it against us I would be complaining about it. So you can’t have double standards with your own players.
"I asked the referee if he was 100 percent certain and he was.
"Simulation is something that is in the game now and it is there all the time, whether we like it or not. I certainly don’t like it.
"I am the first to complain on the sidelines if it is other people doing it so I can’t have double standards.
"You have to hold your hands up when someone has went down too easily. If he says he has got a nick then fair enough, we weren’t close enough to him but I think the referee got it right.
"It is hard for referees to get it right as the game happens so fast.”
Robinson isn't paying any heed to talk of a wobble down Fir Park way, with his side being nudged out of third position by Aberdeen on goal difference after some patchy form of late.
But he does go into today's league game against St Mirren - who they also play at Fir Park on Tuesday in a Scottish Cup replay - with some injury concerns in attack, meaning Tony Watt may get his first start for the club.
"Chris Long won’t be fit," said Robinson. "Mikael Ndjoli went down with a knee injury on Thursday when he may have got a run of games in the team. He was starting to come to the fore. He will have a scan but he is very doubtful.
“Tony Watt and Ross Maciver come into it as my number nines. Whether Tony is fit enough to start right from the start then needs must and we will have a look at that.
“Chris could be a couple of weeks but with Longy you never know it could be a minute, 10 days or two weeks. He has a thigh strain - he played on with at St Johnstone when we told him to come off. He said he was okay but it’s hard to dent people’s enthusiasm to stay on the pitch.”
Meanwhile, Motherwell midfielder Mark O'Hara says he is hoping to remain at the club following the expiry of his current loan deal from Peterborough at the end of the season.
“I’d love to stay here," O'Hara said.
“I’d love to make that permanent if possible.
“I’ve played plenty of games in my career so far, but I feel as if it is time to become a mainstay somewhere.”
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