Jens Berthel Askou baffled by second red card in Motherwell’s defeat at Aberdeen

Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou was left baffled by the “mystery” decision over his team’s second red card in their cup defeat at Aberdeen.

The Steelmen played with a man down for about an hour in total in their 2-0 Scottish Gas Scottish Cup loss.

Well had Oscar Priestman and Liam Gordon sent off for denying obvious goalscoring opportunities either side of Dennis Geiger’s dismissal for the hosts for a high, studs-up challenge on Lukas Fadinger.

Priestman was unfortunate to slip into Lyall Cameron’s path and Motherwell felt the ball might have been running through to Matty Connelly, however Askou accepted it was a “50-50 call”.

But he could not understand why Gordon was sent off following a VAR review after initially being booked by John Beaton for bringing down Toyosi Olusanya three yards inside his own half.

Askou said: “The third one is a mystery to me and will remain a mystery for as long as I live, how they can change that decision, because he gets it completely right the first time.

“There’s cover behind. He needs to drive the ball 40 yards before he can get a big chance. There’s two guys covering that will get in his way before he reaches the D.

“I would back my defenders, or I would be extremely surprised and disappointed if they didn’t get in his way before he got a clear shot. Then I would pull them in the office the day after and say, what are you doing? Why are you slowing down and letting him drive down and score?”

Motherwell kept pushing but ultimately succumbed to long-range strikes from Kevin Nisbet, who added a double punishment to Priestman’s early foul, and Graeme Shinnie.

Askou said: “I cannot be more proud of this team in terms of how we really tried to get something out of that game even though it looked difficult.”

Connelly was one of six players brought into the starting line-up.

When asked about the changes, the Well boss said: “We’ve done that throughout the whole season. We needed energy, we knew it was a game that might go into 120 minutes and with only two days in between the games.

“We still have some players in the squad who have returned recently from injury spells and we need to make sure that everyone comes in with the right intensity and right freshness because that’s part of our game.”

Dons caretaker manager Peter Leven praised Shinnie for bouncing back from his recent red card at Kilmarnock.

“He’s everything this club needs,” Leven said. “He wants to do well, he’s a leader. Bringing him straight back in was a no-brainer, and he just drives us on.”

Leven, whose side travel to Dunfermline in the quarter-finals, added: “We could have been better on the ball, we could have had more options, but that’s a confidence thing where we’re at right now. The most important thing is we’re still in the Scottish Cup.”