Brighton manager Mark McGhee could not contain his frustration yesterday as his relegation-threatened side were beaten on their own patch by their archrivals.
The keenly contested derby saw Palace dominate in front of goal – creating three times as many chances as their lowly opponents – but McGhee was determined to pass blame for the defeat away from his struggling team and onto fourth official Paul Melin instead.
The Brighton boss picked Melin as his scapegoat because of his part in the late sending off of Gary Hart.
"Having Hart sent-off cost us the game," McGhee moaned.
"First of all it was a foul on Gary Hart for the first booking. McAnuff edged him out.
"The referee can miss that but the fourth official intervened at the second booking when he went to the referee and told him that Gary had clearly played the ball with his hand.
"He wasn't prepared to intervene with the first one when he could clearly see exactly what had happened.
"It's consistency again. If he is going to get involved then he has to get involved all the time."
Strangely, McGhee’s rant on the quality of yesterday’s officials made no mention of the penalty decision that briefly put Brighton 2-1 ahead – a spot kick seemingly given because Jake Robinson tripped over his own bootlaces.