Fans have poked fun at England international Eric Dier for going “full Steve McClaren” after he appeared to have adopted a German accent following his debut for Bayern Munich.

The 30-year-old, who is on loan at Bayern from Tottenham, was introduced as a half-time replacement for the injured Dayot Upamecano in Wednesday night’s 1-0 Bundesliga victory over Union Berlin and was interviewed on the pitch afterwards.

Dier, who was born in Cheltenham but raised in Portugal, spoke with a German twang, prompting amused comments from social media users.

In it, he said: “A very proud moment for me, obviously, to make my debut for this club. It’s a very proud moment for me and my family and I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed playing here.”

The interview rekindled memories of current Manchester United coach McClaren, who famously appeared to mimic a Dutch accent in an interview during his time in charge at Eredivisie club Twente.

Bayern Munich defender Dayot Upamecano is facing several weeks on the sidelines after suffering a hamstring injury during Wednesday night’s 1-0 Bundesliga victory over Union Berlin.

The 25-year-old France international pulled up as he tracked a break by Union’s Benedict Hollerbach towards the end of the first half at the Allianz Arena and although he managed to continue until the break after treatment, he was replaced by debutant Eric Dier before the restart.

Speaking at his post-match press conference, Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel said: “It’s a torn fibre in the back of the thigh. It’s going to be weeks, not days.

“That’s really tough to take for Upa and for us. He’s been in top form in recent weeks.”

Upamecano was not the only Bayern player to emerge from a hard-fought victory with an injury.

Full-back Konrad Laimer was withdrawn with a knock four minutes from time, while midfielder Joshua Kimmich finished the game nursing a shoulder problem, and both will be assessed ahead of Saturday’s trip to Augsburg.

Kalvin Phillips is undergoing a medical at West Ham on Thursday ahead of his loan switch from Manchester City.

The England midfielder has agreed a move to the London Stadium until the end of the season.

West Ham will have an option to buy Phillips once the loan deal is over.

The PA news agency understands the loan deal will be announced either later on Thursday or on Friday morning.

Phillips joined City from Leeds for £45million on a six-year contract in July 2022.

But the 28-year-old has never managed to hold down a regular spot in Pep Guardiola’s side and has not started a single Premier League match this season.

Crystal Palace and Newcastle were also interested in Phillips but he has opted for West Ham, who are currently sixth in the table and in the last 16 of the Europa League.

Phillips knows he needs game time with Euro 2024 coming up this summer.

Hammers boss David Moyes is also looking to offload players with Algeria winger Said Benrahma likely to leave before the transfer window closes.

Ajax’s Steven Bergwijn is a potential replacement for Benrahma with Moyes keen to build on West Ham’s strong first half of the season.

Steve Cotterill has been appointed Forest Green’s new manager, tasked with trying to preserve their Football League status following Troy Deeney’s turbulent six-game spell.

Deeney was sacked last week having been in the role for just 29 days, during which time he apologised for an astonishing public outburst towards his players after a defeat at home to Harrogate.

He collected just three points from an available 18 in his first managerial job to leave Rovers rooted to the bottom of Sky Bet League Two and searching for their fifth permanent boss in less than a year.

Chairman Dale Vince has turned to the more experienced Cotterill, who counts Cheltenham, Stoke, Burnley, Notts County, Portsmouth, Nottingham Forest, Bristol City and Birmingham as his former clubs.

He has been out of work since leaving Shrewsbury last June after a two-and-a-half-year stint at the League One club and takes over a Forest Green side who are six points adrift of safety.

Cotterill will take charge of training on Thursday and is expected to be in the dugout for the visit of Accrington this weekend.

Vince said: “I’m delighted to welcome Steve Cotterill to FGR. His record speaks for itself with 25 years of experience in all leagues of the EFL, spanning nearly 900 games.

“Steve knows what it takes and shares our determination to avoid relegation this season. Then build our way back up to League One and looking upward again. I’m sure our fans will welcome this appointment.”

Jurgen Klopp hailed Liverpool’s game plan and admitted his players “understood” the occasion better than Fulham after Wednesday night’s 1-1 Carabao Cup semi-final draw booked their place in the final thanks to a 3-2 aggregate win.

Luiz Diaz’s first-half strike was cancelled out by Issa Diop’s 76th-minute equaliser but the Cottagers could not find another at Craven Cottage as the Reds set up a Wembley showdown with Chelsea.

Klopp praised Liverpool’s second-half performance, where they soaked up pressure and frustrated Marco Silva’s men.

“They came out and they pressed for a while, but we understood the game slightly better,” Klopp said.

“I liked the second half as well. We should’ve scored, there were two situations.

“I think the counter-attack, everything was perfect and then Lucho (Diaz) doesn’t find the right player – which was a little bit of a shame – and when Harvey (Elliott) could shoot with his slightly-weaker right foot, we could’ve put the game to bed, but we didn’t.”

Liverpool were far from their best on the night and missed the presence of Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Klopp knew the occasion would not be an easy one against their Premier League rivals but a solid team performance saw the visitors capitalise on their 2-1 first-leg advantage at Anfield.

“It was just a good game, a good cup game,” Klopp added.

“Whoever expected tonight that we just show quality and we get through and this will be a walk in the park doesn’t understand the game and doesn’t understand the importance of the occasion.

“Both teams wanted to go to Wembley – and we qualified and that’s all we could wish for.”

Joe Gomez continued to feature at left-back in place of the injured Andy Robertson and rarely put a foot wrong against Bobby De Cordova-Reid.

Klopp added: “He played exceptional today again. He’s a real defender and he comes inside. He’s doing that really well.

“He is a life-saver, to be honest, that he was here, that he could play and people forget how important Joey (Gomez) was in the best years we had.

“I don’t know how many games he played in the year when we became champions and how many games he played when we won the Champions League. A lot and rightly so because he’s a top-class player.”

What the papers say

Napoli striker Victor Osimhen has made a decision over where he will play next in his career, the Daily Mail reports. However, it is yet to be confirmed if he will go for Manchester United, Chelsea, or Arsenal, as all three Premier League clubs are reportedly keen on the Nigeria international.

The Daily Mail also states that Southampton, Burnley, and Leicester all have their eye on attacking midfielder Callum O’Hare, who is out of contract with Coventry in the summer.

Manchester United have refused to continue talks to obtain Karim Benzema due to “exorbitant” sums being sought for the 36-year-old, Sky Sports reports.

Social media round-upPlayers to watch

Joshua Kimmich: Liverpool and Manchester City are going head-to-head to sign the midfielder from Bayern Munich, writes Bild.

Martin Dubravka: Newcastle’s Slovakia goalkeeper is considering his future at the club, according to i Sport.

Mason Greenwood: Manchester United plan to recoup £100million via the sale of players this summer, with the 22-year-old English forward leading the list, writes i Sport.

Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City have all slipped down the rankings in the latest Deloitte Football Money League as clubs from continental Europe gained ground.

Liverpool have had the biggest fall of any club in the top 20, from third place down to seventh, after Deloitte found their revenue had dropped slightly from £594.3million to £593.8m.

Deloitte attributed that fall to the Reds’ on-field performance, with the club finishing fifth in the Premier League last season and bowing out in the Champions League last 16.

Manchester United dropped one place to fifth despite a healthier revenue figure than the season before, while treble winners City were leapfrogged by Real Madrid and now sit second, despite posting a record Premier League revenue figure in their most recent accounts.

The Money League looks at revenue figures reported in clubs’ annual accounts for the 2022-23 season and does not look at operating costs.

Tottenham and Chelsea switched places compared to last year, with Spurs up one place to eighth, while Arsenal held on to 10th position.

Real led the way with revenue of £723m in 2022-23, demonstrating the club are doing well out of European football’s current ecosystem, despite their president Florentino Perez being arguably the most staunch advocate for a Super League.

Paris St Germain enter the top three for the first time, while Barcelona moved up three places to seventh with a revenue figure of £696m.

Tim Bridge, the lead partner in Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, told the PA news agency: “There is a point in time, a moment here, where you’ve got Real Madrid and Barcelona redeveloping their stadiums, they have made moves towards controlling much more of their operations, particularly merchandising and licensing, so those revenue figures are a result of direct changes they have made to their business model.

“When we look at the Premier League holistically we’re not 100 per cent certain the days of significant domestic growth in media rights is over, but what we can say is, without significant competition coming into that market, then single-figure percentage growth is the likely outcome in that domestic market. Therefore the focus is on what can be done in the international market.

“What has always underpinned the fact there have been 10 or 11 Premier League clubs in the Money League has been that the media rights growth has given them significant distributions. Other leagues have caught up and there has been a slight plateauing of Premier League rights.”

Deloitte said the top 20 clubs had earned 10.5billion euros (£9bn) collectively, a 14 per cent increase on the previous season.

Barcelona Femeni were the top-earning women’s club in the world, with revenue rising by 74 per cent to £11.6m.

Modernising Old Trafford and improving the matchday experience could help Manchester United achieve “revolutionary” growth in revenue, a football finance expert has said.

The Red Devils may have gone a decade without a Premier League title and 15 years without winning the Champions League, but commercially they remain a success story.

They dropped one place to fifth in the Deloitte Football Money League but earned a club record £648m for 2022-23, which briefly stood as a Premier League record before Manchester City announced their results for the same period in November last year.

Tim Bridge, the lead partner in Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, hailed their enduring ability to generate revenue despite their on-field struggles, but believes upgrading Old Trafford could elevate them above their Premier League and European peers in commercial terms.

“What is so impressive (about United) is that resilience, that ability to continue to generate significant commercial return in the market, to find new (commercial) partners,” Bridge told the PA news agency.

“They have this way to engage with commercial partners in a way that few other clubs can.

“But you could also flip it around and also talk about what is the scale of the opportunity if they got it right. There have been a lot of reports around the current conditions at Old Trafford, there has been a lot of comparison to other football stadiums and the overall offering.

“I genuinely believe that if they had a genuine matchday offering that kept the fans in and around the stadium in the way that you have at somewhere like Tottenham, the results from a revenue perspective could be revolutionary and really outplay the rest of the competition.

“Because they still generate £100million-plus from Old Trafford and yet in experience terms, compared to what is also available on the market, or what may be available on the market from a Real Madrid or a Barcelona in the future, then the two are probably not comparable.

“So the strength of their brand, the strength of their fanbase, the loyalty is absolutely incredible and is extremely resilient and impressive.”

Ineos is set to invest 300 million US dollars (£235m) on club infrastructure after securing a 25 per cent stake in United.

Supporters have issued a number of complaints about the stadium, highlighting in particular leaks in its roof.

Athletic Bilbao’s Williams brothers both scored in extra-time as Barcelona endured more Copa del Rey misery at the San Mames in a 4-2 humbling in their quarter-final.

Inaki came off the bench to put the hosts ahead right at the end of the first additional period before Nico, eight years his junior at 21, applied the finishing touch with the last kick of the game.

The Catalans’ previous two visits in the competition in 2020 and 2022 both ended in defeat and when Inaki Williams reacted brilliantly to a huge stroke of luck by converting his own shot which rebounded off a post, history repeated itself.

It was no less than they deserved after stunning Barca by taking the lead after just 36 seconds through Gorka Guruzeta.

The visitors turned things around with goals from Robert Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal in a six-minute spell midway through the first half but they never looked comfortable and Oihan Sanchet’s equaliser – from a sublime Nico Williams cross – just after the interval paved the way for former Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde’s side to win the game over 120 minutes.

This was the 46th Copa match between the two teams, who have won the trophy a combined 54 times, and it turned into an occasion befitting that history as Bilbao delivered some payback for the four defeats by Barca in the six finals they have reached since their last Copa triumph in 1984.

Guruzeta’s goal – the third time this season Barcelona have conceded in the first minute – was a scrappy affair with Sancet’s knockdown headed back by the diving Malcom Adu Ares for Sancet to help it on to his team-mate to fire home.

Guruzeta’s volley on the run went marginally wide before, after losing left-back Alejandro Balde to a hamstring injury, the visitors struck back with Lewandowski’s 13th of the season.

Pedri tried to get on the end of Ferran Torres’ left-wing cross and the loose ball fell to defender Yuri Berchiche, who hammered a clearance against Lewandowski who pounced to equalise.

When Yamal cut in from the right on his left foot to drill a low shot inside the far post Barcelona appeared to be in control but just four minutes after half-time Nico Williams’ deep cross to the far post was headed down and in by Sancet.

Yamal could have twice restored the visitors’ lead; first he was sent clear by Lewandowski but although he dinked it past goalkeeper Julen Agirrezabala his shot went wide.

Four minutes from time he blazed wide after robbing Aitor Paredes 35 yards out as he received a pass from his goalkeeper and with Lewandowski now subbed off Bilbao sensed their chance.

In the final minute of the first half of extra-time Inaki Williams fired against the far post but a lucky rebound behind the goalkeeper gave him a second chance and he stabbed home.

He then inadvertently provided his brother with an assist when his miscontrol saw Nico Williams score arguably the best goal of the night, a curling effort with the outside of his right foot.

Union Berlin head coach Nenad Bjelica saw red after pushing Leroy Sane in the face during Bayern Munich’s narrow 1-0 win in the Bundesliga.

Bayern led through Raphael Guerreiro’s strike early in the second half before Bjelica appeared to push the former Manchester City winger twice in a sideline clash.

The narrow victory moved Bayern to within four points of Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen as they bounced back from the weekend’s defeat to Werder Bremen.

Harry Kane had an effort disallowed for offside while England team-mate Eric Dier made his Bayern debut as a half-time substitute.

Athletic Bilbao’s Williams brothers both scored in extra-time as Barcelona endured more Copa del Rey misery at the San Mames in a 4-2 humbling in their quarter-final.

Inaki came off the bench to put the hosts ahead right at the end of the first additional period before Nico, eight years his junior at 21, applied the finishing touch with the last kick of the game.

The Catalans’ previous two visits in the competition in 2020 and 2022 both ended in defeat and when Inaki Williams reacted brilliantly to a huge stroke of luck by converting his own shot which rebounded off a post, history repeated itself.

It was no less than they deserved after stunning Barca by taking the lead after just 36 seconds through Gorka Guruzeta.

The visitors turned things around with goals from Robert Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal in a six-minute spell midway through the first half but they never looked comfortable and Oihan Sanchet’s equaliser – from a sublime Nico Williams cross – just after the interval paved the way for former Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde’s side to win the game over 120 minutes.

LaLiga leaders Girona were also knocked out as they fell to a 3-2 defeat at 10-man Real Mallorca.

The hosts scored three times in the first half courtesy of Cyle Larin and two efforts from Abdon Prats, one a stunning strike and the other a penalty.

Girona pulled a goal back midway through the second half when Cristhian Stuani scored a spot-kick after being fouled by Antonio Raillo, who was sent off, and they reduced the deficit further via a Savio finish in the sixth minute of stoppage time, but a last-gasp equaliser proved beyond them.

Leeds boss Daniel Farke revealed his side’s 1-0 home win against Norwich came at a price with Daniel James and Archie Gray both sustaining injury.

James was withdrawn during the interval due to a hip problem after providing an assist for Patrick Bamford’s winning header, which lifted Leeds to within two points of the Sky Bet Championship’s top two.

Teenage defender Gray, whose brilliant second-half tackle denied Adam Idah as the Norwich substitute bore down on goal, was forced off in the closing stages after taking a knock to his knee.

Farke said: “Daniel James sadly, I had to substitute him because at the half-time whistle he overstretched his hip flexor.

“I think it’s a little strain. I hope it’s not too bad. I think he will definitely be out for the FA Cup game at the weekend, but hope he can return to training soon because we need him. He’s in brilliant shape.

“Archie Gray, in the beginning, I was concerned because he had a hit against his knee and overstretched it and was panicking a little bit.

“He was fearing something with the ligament and had to limp off. After the first assessment I’m carefully optimistic. It seems like ACL ligaments are OK and it’s more or less just a hit.

“We have to wait for further assessment, but I’m carefully optimistic it’s not a long-term injury.”

Farke’s side extended their unbeaten home run this season to 15 matches to keep the pressure on their promotion rivals, while also winning their first five games of the year in all competitions.

They dominated for long spells, but failed to find the killer second goal and came through an anxious finale.

“Credit to Norwich, first of all,” Farke added. “They are definitely one of the best sides that have played at Elland Road this season.

“It was a really complicated game and for that I’m more than happy that we won this game, three points, another clean sheet.

“Four clean sheets in January and scoring goals – I’m pretty pleased with this.”

Norwich had their chances – notably Kenny McLean and Gabriel Sara in the first half – but while head coach David Wagner was disappointed with the result, he was pleased with his side’s performance.

Wagner said: “We gave Leeds a real game, we were absolutely competitive, and games like this will get decided by small margins.

“Congratulations to Leeds, a top team with super attacking individuals. But I think we kept them quite calm.

“In the second half everyone could see when we were really able to pin them into their final third without, to be honest, having the final punch in the box.

“Result, frustrating, but I’m absolutely fine with the performance.”

Emma Hayes admitted Chelsea played a boring game against Real Madrid as a 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge ensured progression to the Champions League quarter-finals with a game to spare.

In the first half, Chelsea struggled to find a way through against Real, already eliminated after collecting a single point from their four games.

Chances fell to Guro Reiten and Erin Cuthbert, both denied by goalkeeper Mylene Chavas, while Mia Fishel put an effort wide of the near post from close range.

It took a clumsy challenge from Real full-back Kenti Robles, bringing down the lively Niamh Charles as she darted into the box, to earn Chelsea the penalty from which Reiten finally broke the deadlock just past the hour.

Substitute Athenea tapped in to level as Real made Chelsea sweat on qualification, leaving them facing two dropped points and an awkward trip to play Paris FC next week needing a result to seal a last-eight berth.

But Cuthbert, wearing the armband with Millie Bright unlikely to be back this side of the international break, took charge and within a minute had forced the winning goal, her cross bouncing in off Chavas as the goalkeeper’s concentration deserted her.

“We expect to go through, that’s a bare minimum,” said Hayes. “We should expect to go through as group winners. That’s already a sign of progress, that we expect those things.

“I didn’t think it was a scintillating performance, I thought it was a boring game. Not every game is swashbuckling and dynamic. I thought it was flat.

“I think it was understandable. We had an amazing performance at the weekend against Manchester United. Our league is really tough and I think it showed in some of the flat play for us. But we controlled the game without maybe doing enough in the final third.

“I brought Lauren (James) on at half-time, I thought that helped. Got the penalty, concede a sloppy goal from back to front, a poor goal.

“Then a really good response to go 2-1 up, then managed the game somewhat to the end in what was an efficient performance, but it was boring.”

Hayes said she looked forward to rotating her side in what will now be a dead rubber in Paris next week.

“Managing a squad of players is tricky when you’re making multiple changes,” she said. “I didn’t want to change much from the weekend, I think you need to build rhythm.

“For us the priority has got to be experimenting, giving opportunities in one of these two games coming up; Brighton (in the Women’s Super League) and Paris.

“It’s making sure we get Millie Bright back, we get Nat Bjorn registered. Maybe there’s a new player coming at some point (reports say a club record deal has been agreed for Colombia international Mayra Ramirez).

“But we’ve got to get ourselves ready. If we want to progress, we’ve got to get better. I think it was comfortable and measured from us.”

Real boss Alberto Toril reflected on a game that got away from his side despite a spirited performance.

“We played with our strengths, we contained them,” he said. “We restricted them. They’re a great team and we’re happy with the performance, even though we’ve lost. Sometimes you learn from the defeats.”

Jurgen Klopp was delighted his Liverpool side matched Fulham’s desire to reach the Carabao Cup final after the Reds secured their place at Wembley with a spirited 1-1 second-leg draw at Craven Cottage.

Luis Diaz put the Reds in the driving seat in the first half and despite Issa Diop’s 76th minute equaliser giving Fulham late hope, Liverpool sealed a 3-2 aggregate win after their 2-1 victory at Anfield earlier this month.

Klopp lauded his side’s spirit in the late stages as they now ready themselves for a repeat of the 2022 final against Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea.

“We were just ready for this game and that’s the most important thing. I saw Marco Silva’s press conference and we know what this game meant to them and so I told the boys we have to also show it,” Klopp said.

“We had to show it to the outside world that we wanted it as much as them and I saw that.

“We had to get over the line and we did. It feels great, we are really happy, the boys wanted it and they got it and so we have 10 games to play before the final in four weeks or so. We are looking forward to Wembley.”

Liverpool defeated Chelsea in both the Carabao Cup and FA Cup finals two years ago and Klopp believes the Blues will be motivated to get their revenge.

He added: “It will be a big one but we all know it’s against Chelsea. They will want to put history right after playing us twice two years ago.”

Diaz was quick to react and beat Timothy Castagne in the air before a deflected strike got past Bernd Leno at his near post.

The Liverpool boss talked up the winger’s impact after his standout performance on the night.

Klopp said: “He was very good. He’s a fantastic player and I have absolutely no criticism of him but I wish he set up the second and scored the third.

“The speed and the power he can generate, the technique and the combination of that is outstanding so I’m really happy.”

Fulham dug deep to try and force the game into extra-time but their earlier missed opportunities frustrated Silva come full time.

Silva believes Liverpool’s experience in big games was the difference maker between the two sides.

He said: “Tonight I felt like they were much calmer than us and to them it was just another game. With most of our players it is new to them to play in a semi-final of this competition and it is what it is.

“I think the club is going to grow in these type of moments and the players as well.”

Philippe Clement is happy to have a selection headache after Rangers closed the gap on cinch Premiership leaders Celtic with a commanding 3-0 win over Hibernian.

Defender Ridvan Yilmaz and midfielder Todd Cantwell gave the visitors a two-goal interval lead at Easter Road with substitute Cyriel Dessers adding a third in the second half to leave the Light Blues five points behind their Old Firm rivals with one game in hand.

Keeper Jack Butland chipped in with some crucial saves but Clement spoke in glowing terms about his whole squad.

“It is about everybody,” said the Rangers boss, who reiterated his earlier statement that Abdallah Sima would be out for “between two and three months” after having an operation on his thigh.

“To be honest, after a game like this, I don’t even remember who scored the goals because for me it is not important who scores.

“It’s scoring as a team and it is the same with Jack. He makes the saves because the other guys will get red cards if they make saves with their hands.

“But, for example, John (Souttar) also made a really good save with his chest. It’s a team effort. That’s what we wanted to create a few months ago. To see a team all the time on the pitch and the guys are doing that now.

“I hope also after several victories they keep on understanding where it is coming from. It is not falling out of the sky.

“It is about a lot of effort, a lot of solidarity and not having too big an ego to play for yourself.

“So I am going to be really strict on that and to look at the team and making team decisions.

“I told them after training yesterday [Tuesday] they give me quite a headache for the moment to pick a starting 11.

“But it is a good thing. I hope they give me a lot of headaches the next couple of months.”

Before the game Clement revealed the extent of Sima’s injury.

The 22-year-old Senegal international, who has scored 15 goals since arriving on loan from Brighton in the summer, was sent home from the Africa Cup of Nations after picking up the injury in training.

Clement told Rangers’ official website: “Abdallah had his operation and the surgeon was really happy with the way it went.

“It was a good operation, everything went well and he will be out for between two and three months.

“He is positive, he is someone who is always working hard and we expect him to be back as fast as possible in a healthy way and we can count on him at the end of the season.”

Hibs boss Nick Montgomery was left ruing some missed opportunities.

He said: “Myziane (Maolida) has a chance from six yards and it’s a top save from the goalkeeper.

“Those are the moments that change games. If that goes in it’s 2-1 the crowd lifts and I’m pretty sure we could have got back into the game. We would have been right in the ascendency.

“If you don’t take your chances you are going to start chasing the game and you can’t do that against a team like Rangers.”

St Johnstone manager Craig Levein admitted he had ditched a plan to take debutant David Keltjens off before the Israel international netted a late equaliser against Aberdeen.

Saints appeared to be heading towards a hard-luck story after Bojan Miovski’s penalty put the Dons ahead but debutant Keltjens headed home in the 78th minute to seal a 1-1 draw.

The 28-year-old January signing had been without a club since last season and Levein planned to remove him after an hour after starting him at wing-back.

“That was our intention but he was doing so well that I didn’t see any reason to take him off,” the saints boss said.

“David was excellent. He has hardly played any football at all for a long time and that was one of the considerations when we signed him. But he has played six times for Israel and he is a good age.

“It was just about whether he was capable of performing at the levels that we require and he more than did. He was steady, reliable and tough. To get the goal was the icing on the cake.”

Liam Gordon was twice on the end of VAR decisions – a disallowed goal and a penalty – which were far from clear and obvious to anyone inside McDiarmid Park, including Levein.

The Saints skipper was penalised for catching Jamie McGrath after the midfielder cleared only as far as Graham Carey, whose volley had squeezed inside the near post of Kelle Roos.

The defender was then ruled to have fouled Slobodan Rubezic following a Dons corner and referee John Beaton pointed to the spot after being called to his monitor for a second time by Steven Kirkland.

Levein, who felt his side deserved “at least a point”, said: “I haven’t seen any of the incidents. The boys said Gordy caught somebody for their penalty so that was fair enough. I don’t know what happened with their disallowed goal. I will wait and see.

“It was a bit of a palaver to be honest. It does seem there is a lot of time taken to make decisions and if every decision was correct then I would be happy for them to spend as much time as they want.

“But when you have human beings involved, there is always a chance there is going to be errors. I’m not saying there was tonight because I don’t know.”

Aberdeen missed the chance to move into the cinch Premiership top six and manager Barry Robson felt his side paid the price for poor game management.

“It was disappointing, when you are 1-0 up with 15 minutes to go, you are hoping to go on and win the game,” said Robson, who lost Rubezic late on to a knee injury which will require a scan.

“When the opposition is coming at you and they will come at you, you have to be calm and use your experience. You get your distances right, stop crosses coming into the box and when the ball does come in the box, you win your headers.

“We never did that well enough in the last 15 minutes.”