'Michael's clearly not stamped on him' - Gutted Berwick Rangers boss Stuart Malcolm hits out at "bizarre" red card for Michael Travis in Scottish Cup defeat at Linlithgow Rose

Malcolm, speaking exclusively to the Berwickshire News, was gutted by a dismissal that saw Rangers play most of the second half with 10 men following Travis’ innocuous-looking challenge on Linlithgow’s Alan Sneddon early in the second half in which the 29-year-old seemed to win the ball before brushing the Rose forward who hit the deck clutching his face.

Play then continued for a few seconds before referee Steven MacDonald flashed a red card at Travis, a decision which Berwick have appealed against to the SFA in the hope of getting it rescinded.

Boss Malcolm said: “The video evidence is clear. There’s a tussle, the Linlithgow player falls to the ground and then Michael skips over him.

"The play continues for five, six, seven seconds and then the referee pulls the play back.

"Then Linlithgow surround the referee and he issues a red card. The whole thing’s bizarre.

"If the referee has seen it right away then why’s he not issued the red card instantaneously when he thinks he’s seen a stamp?

"Michael’s clearly not stamped him, he’s pretty honest.

"If he had he would have said: ‘I’m stupid, I made a mistake, I stamped on him’. But Michael has claimed he’s not touched him and it looks like that’s the case.

"In all my time in football, I’ve never seen a red card issued like that.

"To make it worse, I’ve got video evidence of a Linlithgow player turning round in the first half and full force punching Michael Travis straight in the chest, after a corner kick. He ended up in a heap.

"The linesman claims he’s not seen it, the referee claims he’s not seen it. It’s embarrassing.

"It’s absolutely horrific when you see it, a big haymaker. So the referee can’t see that yet he later issues a red card to our player five seconds after the play has continued.

“I’m livid that the officials can’t see a full blown punch but they can see a stamp that’s never even a stamp.

"The game’s not been adjudicated fairly.”

Going back to the football, Berwick had earlier conceded a soft opening goal to a scrambled effort by Linlithgow’s Connor McMullan.

Despite then being a man down later on, the Scottish Lowland Football League side levelled against their East of Scotland Premier Division opponents on 74 minutes when David Ferguson headed in following a corner.

But there was to be late drama one minute into stoppage time when Conor McKenzie scored the rebound after an initial effort had been saved by Berwick keeper Calum Antell.

"We were absolutely excellent when we went to 10 men,” Malcolm added. “There is absolutely no question in my mind we should win the game.

"The chances that we make, we don’t get five or six chances better than that in football games and we have to take one or two of them.

"We should be in the next round of the cup, but we’re not because we don’t defend the one attack that they have in the second half particularly well and we end up ruing the missed chances.

"We are not blaming the ref for getting beaten. We missed clear cut chances.

"The referee doesn’t affect us missing the chances but he affects the outcome of the game with his decision. We missed a very influential player.”

Malcolm said he expected to win the appeal against Travis’ sending off as there was “nothing in it”.

Berwick have no competitive fixture this weekend.