Aberdeen director of football Willie Miller has stood by the club's fierce criticism of referee Steven Nicholls, claiming they had to speak out for the sake of their fans and reputation.
Miller defended an article on the club's official website, which accused Nicholls of "cheating" supporters after he sent off Aberdeen pair Maurice Ross and Chris Maguire during their late 2-0 Clydesdale bank Premier League defeat by Hibernian on Saturday.
"It's a club point of view," Miller told RedTV. "We have got to take a stance, particularly for our fans, and assure them we want to see the game in Scotland and at Aberdeen played in a certain way. We are certainly not a physical team."
The unattributed article, entitled 'Is common sense too much to hope for?', observed that Nicholls, who also issued a total of eight yellow cards, was "hell bent" on sending someone off.
Miller argued that Scottish football needed its authorities to co-operate with the coaches who were striving to improve the entertainment value.
Miller added: "We're concerned about the game in general. It's taking a lot of stick about the standard.
"We're encouraging the fans to travel, we had nearly 2,000 fans at Easter Road, and when you're getting players sent off then it spoils the entertainment.
"We're trying to get the profile of the game up and convince fans that we're trying to play football.
"A lot of our young managers deserve credit for the way they are trying to play the game. The game in Scotland is not a dirty one.
"I don't want to see it being tarnished by people who think it's physical, because Saturday's game wasn't physical. I don't think any of the challenges on Saturday were malicious."
Comment 1 - 4 of 4
miller, open your eyes, your dragging Aberdeen down by these silly comments.
one of the tackles was horrendous and the other was from behind, the referee was spot on, as far as i'm concerned the referee need explain nothing, it's there for all to see that he was correct, if Aberdeen cant see that, then it's no wonder they're having problems, they'll end up in the first division if they carry on like this.
I was at the game and Aberdeen got what they deserved. Ross could have been of earlier if the linesman reported him for his actions to the east stand and he had a few fouls before the first booking if he is so experienced why did he carry on fouling.
McGuire studded up into a tackle that could have caused serious injury no doubt McGhee didn,t watch his own players,but as usual used it as an excuse for there own ineptitude
these sheep shaggers should shut up the red cards were well deserved and murrays tackle he got the ball in a 50/50 situation yes the ref wasnt great but the main calls were all correct
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