Stephen O'Donnell is adamant Motherwell were denied a stonewall penalty in Saturday's defeat to Kilmarnock as he blasted: “I’m not a f***ing diver - I don’t know how to dive!”
The flying full-back went down under a Brandon Haunstrup challenge as he charged into the box midway through the first half and with the score at 1-1 before Well crashed to a shock 4-1 thrashing.
It looked like he had a solid case and manager Graham Alexander was infuriated as ref Alan Muir - who sent him off at Hibs only three weeks earlier - waved play on.
O’Donnell said: “I don’t dive particularly well. In fact, I’m not a f***ing diver: I don’t know how to do it.
“I’ve never been taught how to throw myself to the ground.
“There was a nudge on my back and that’s a foul anywhere else on the park. I haven’t seen it back but I was convinced it was a penalty – their player had been caught out of position.
“If we go in 2-1 up at the interval it’s a different story but these things happen and games change on decisions like that but we were still in the game at that stage and it doesn’t explain our second-half performance.
“For us, that’s a big three points dropped. We’d wanted to maintain our momentum to end the season well but it’s just a blip and we’ll go again.”
With five games left after the split Well sit eight points clear of bottom side Hamilton and seven ahead of Killie in the play-off spot.
But O’Donnell - who will join up with the Scotland camp for the World Cup qualifiers this week - said: “Until it’s mathematically impossible for you to go down, I don’t think there’s one team who can claim that they’re safe.
“That’s the excitement of the split for the neutral but, hopefully, we won’t be involved at the death.
“It’s nice to go away with the national team and it’s always a privilege to do so but this defeat will still be hurting when I join up with the rest of the lads.
“There will be plenty of time to mull over it and club football is always at the back of your mind but by the time the match against Austria comes up I’ll have something else to think about.”
