JONATAN Johansson says he knows only too well the tough task referees have — after officiating in games himself while kicking off his playing career.

Both Johansson and Dundee United manager Robbie Neilson were frustrated on the sidelines with a number of decisions made by referee David Munro in Saturday’s game.

Johansson was given a talking to by the official in the second half, while Neilson was later sent to the stand.

The Finn was most aggrieved over fouls on Ton forward Robert Thomson, who was regularly impeded by United’s defenders by wrapping their arms around him on regular occasions to hinder his movement. 

However, Johansson says he doesn’t want to blame referees because he understands how difficult the job is, having been the man in the middle to earn extra pocket money when he was a young player. 

He told the Tele: “I don’t want to do that [criticise referees], because that’s how I got my pocket money when I started playing, I know how hard it is.

“I would never criticise them in the media, I would go and speak to them myself, but I felt small decisions like the pulling on Robert Thomson could have been cut out and it was going on all game.

“I don’t want to say too much because it’s a difficult job, but I felt with small decisions, if you don’t make them early in the game it’s easy for managers to get annoyed.

“The use of arms on Robert the whole game was annoying because for me you can cut it out by giving a few free-kicks away in the first half. He didn’t do that — and me and Robbie were both quite annoyed at decisions.”