The SFA's head of referee development, Donald McVicar, has denied allegations by Gus MacPherson that the St Mirren boss has been singled out.After his side had lost to a controversial Barry Robson penalty at Celtic Park on Sunday, MacPherson claimed he had been one of two managers whose faces were shown on a screen at one point during the Scottish referees' annual conference at St Andrews.

MacPherson admitted he did not know the context but insisted it was "worrying".

However, McVicar denied MacPherson had been mentioned either verbally or by way of video.

He said: "What Gus said was not true. Gus MacPherson was not even mentioned nor was his face up on any screen.

"What we do is look at video clips and DVDs and look at the good, bad and ugly part of the game to see what we want to improve upon.

"One of the clips we used was of a tackle in a Scottish Cup game (between Rangers and Hibs) and how the two managers, Walter Smith and Mixu Paatelainen, had got involved as a result of that.

"We were looking at the repercussions of the tackle.

"We were not specifically looking at managers and that was the only time we talked about them - and Gus MacPherson wasn't one of them."

MacPherson's allegations came after the visitors had suffered what appeared to be an injustice at the penalty incident.

The St Mirren boss also claimed referee Eddie Smith, who awarded the spot-kick following a challenge by Will Haining on Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink - which also saw the Saints defender red-carded - had winked at him during the second half.

The Saints boss had criticised Smith last season after he had awarded a dubious free-kick to Celtic at Love Street which had ended with Shunsuke Nakamura firing in a late winner for the visitors.

McVicar admits that the conspiracy theories which have already started after the first weekend of the season are part and parcel of modern day officiating.

He said: "It goes with the territory, that's what happens and we just have to live with that.

"Referees will never beat the televisions cameras."

St Mirren confirmed that they will appeal Haining's red card.

More Football News from TEAMtalk