Craig Levein hopes Dundee United's failure to get a penalty in their 1-1 draw with Celtic was not down to his previous criticism of referees.Gary Caldwell's sliding challenge brought down Roy O'Donovan inside the box in Sunday's SPL clash at Tannadice, but referee Charlie Richmond awarded no foul.

United were trailing to a deflected strike by Paul Hartley but fought back for their first league point thanks to sub Francisco Sandaza's late leveller.

Levein was recently fined £5,000 by the Scottish Football Association for his criticism of Mike McCurry's handling of their 3-1 defeat by Rangers in May.

And he was baffled at the decision not to award his team a penalty today.

"I just hope for the sake of Scottish football that it's not because I spoke out last time a similar thing happened," he told BBC Scotland.

"I can understand that people make mistakes and in all honesty I like Charlie, I think he's a decent referee and I have just got to put it down that he has made a mistake.

"It wasn't like the last time when there were five or six blatant mistakes, it was one today. Hopefully we will get our fair share of the breaks.

"We have got a meeting with the referees on Wednesday and I have a few points I would like to put across.

"I would love for everyone to get on and work together for the good of Scottish football, but sometimes after a game it's very, very difficult.

"This is my livelihood, my wife and daughter depend on what I do here and the big decisions are the ones you have got to get right."

Celtic boss Gordon Strachan felt it was a "cracking game" and thought the debate over the penalty claim should have been negated by what he thought was a foul by O'Donovan on Stephen McManus.

"Seconds before that the number 10 jumped into Mick (McManus), so it was a foul before that," Strachan told Setanta Sports.

"I thought we should have had that decision so we wouldn't be talking about the penalty."

Strachan's team won 1-0 against St Mirren last weekend thanks to a controversial penalty but he added: "It's the good players, determined players who will decide where you are at the end of the season, not decisions by referees."

Meanwhile, Richmond was taken to hospital with a suspected broken ankle following the collision with Shunsuke Nakamura that led to him being replaced by Iain Brines.

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