Hunt: Blunder Ref has left me gutted

May 11 2008 By Gordon Waddell

NOEL HUNT last night admitted Dundee United were so down they thought even the goal they did score against Rangers would be chopped off.

The Irishman was at the centre of two controversies in yesterday's 3-1 defeat at Ibrox.

He was denied what looked a stonewall penalty when Davie Weir sent him tumbling then copped an alleged punch in the face from Kirk Broadfoot that went unpunished.

United also had a goal from Danny Swanson controversially ruled out in an amazing spell during the second half.

And, sporting a nasty gash on the underside of his tongue as evidence, the striker admits the game left him gutted.

Hunt said: "At the penalty incident I thought I did everything right as a striker.

"I got into the box, across the defender like they say you should, and he took my legs away. You can't get anymore stonewall than that.

"David Weir would also have been sent off if it was given.

"If we had scored then and Danny Swanson's goal had been given then who knows what might have happened?

"I don't know what the assistant ref thought he saw but the ball hit off Weir and it was a goal.

"It's Rangers' and Celtic's league, isn't it? We're sick of being hard done by. We're raging, every one of us.

"Even when we did score Mark De Vries didn't bother celebrating because he thought the ref was going to take that one off us too.

"We'd already had a perfectly good goal disallowed so why should we have expected this one to be okay?"

However, Hunt (below) refused to point the finger at Broadfoot for the punch gaffer Craig Levein accused him of.

He shrugged: "Something happened on the park, away from the ball, that made me bitemy tongue. No-one saw it.

"When I went to get the ball after I thought we'd scored their keeper asked if I was bleeding and told me I had better get it seen to."

United's defeat took on even deeper significance later on when Motherwell's 2-1 win over Aberdeen ruled the Arabs out of the hunt for Europe.

Well's four-point lead is now insurmountable for United who face Celtic at home in their final game a week on Thursday.

But Hunt reckons it's a point that was lost in the fuss over the Old Firm's chase for title.

He said: "Our main objective is us - not Rangers, not Celtic.

"We don't care about them butwe did care about Europe. And people forget we have a part to play as well."