Malky Mackay admits Owura Edwards deserved his red card as Ross County crashed to a 1-0 Premiership defeat at St Mirren.
The Staggies manager watched his side lose out to an early Declan Gallagher headed goal and were chasing the game until the end.
However, Edwards, who was one of three half-time subs, was sent off in the closing moments by referee Graham Grainger for a reckless challenge on goalkeeper Trevor Carson. He was originally booked, but a VAR check prompted an upgrade to a red.
It put the cap on a miserable afternoon for County, who remain just one point above bottom team Dundee United, who come north next weekend.
He said: “I’m disappointed as to how bad his challenge was. I’ve looked at it again and again and it’s not a good challenge from my player and I’ve told him that.
“If he had been in the position he was meant to be in then he’s nicking in and scoring. But he’s not and he was coming from somewhere he shouldn’t be.
“And because of that he throws himself at it – and it’s not good enough. It’s not acceptable. He will take his punishment.”
Slow start so costly for Staggies
The only goal came after just seven minutes when former Aberdeen man Gallagher pounced to score from a corner.
Mackay, who also felt his side could have been awarded a spot-kick for a foul by Carson, was less than impressed by how long it took his team to get going and led to him making a hat-trick of interval changes.
He said: “The slow start certainly cost us in the end. The first 20 minutes was surprising because we knew how potent St Mirren are with their results here and with the way they play. You have to stand up to that.
“We did a lot of work on it. We had a very similar type of team performance from Kilmarnock a few weeks ago in Dingwall.
“For the first 20 minutes, we didn’t affect St Mirren in the way we should have. It was much too slow a start.
“It took until the last 10-15 minutes of the first half for us to start getting going. You cannot give teams half an hour of a start.
“At half-time, I wanted to tweak and change things and go on the front foot and I think that affected the game.
“We came into the game and put balls into their box as well as they did with us, which made a difference, but by that point they had scored their goal and that gave them something to hold on to.”
County’s latest survival match will see them host Dundee United next Saturday, while St Mirren tackle St Johnstone in Perth.
The following weekend, County take another relegation rival in Motherwell in Dingwall.
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