Bevis Mugabi exclusive: Motherwell ace says his disallowed goal against Hibernian should have stood

Post match, ’Well gaffer Stephen Robinson demanded an apology from referee Andrew Dallas after the game for chopping off Mugabi’s strike – which came at 0-0 and during a period when the hosts were on top in this Scottish Premiership encounter.

And the Ugandan international centre back echoed his manager's sentiments.

Mugabi told the Times and Speaker: "Mark O’Hara at the back stick just outmuscled his man. And I was lucky enough to get on the end of it but unfortunately the ref disallowed it.

"I think for a foul by O'Hara on one of their players. In my opinion there wasn't a foul.

“It was definitely not a 3-0 game. I feel like the scoreline’s very, very harsh on us.

"Especially with the way that we played. It's not like we played badly.

"We had chances, I had a few chances and it just never went our way.”

From one of those chances, Mugabi endured the agony of seeing his header from a second half Liam Polworth corner come back off the inside of the post. Had it gone in, it would have levelled the game at 1-1 at that point.

Mugabi said: “Literally I thought the ball was in. Everything went well with my movement, I lost my man, had a jump on him, had a few yards on him, had a good contact and I thought: ‘Yeah, this is in’.

"It was just one of those moments that didn't go our way again.

"It was definitely a sore one. As soon as it hit the post and then went across I was like: ‘Oh my God, not again’.”

What makes the defeat harder to bear for Mugabi and his fifth placed ’Well mates is that they could have closed within two points of Hibs with a win.

"It does make it a bit sorer,” Mugabi said.

"With the points that we got as well (the pair of 3-0 wins awarded to ’Well for Covid breaches by Kilmarnock and St Mirren ahead of postponed games against ’Well in October) it was an opportunity for us to just close the gap.

"But again, it’s just something that we have to take on the chin and go again next week.”

Despite losing to Hibs, Motherwell still have a four-point buffer from seventh placed Kilmarnock in what can still be a fine season.

"That’s our target, to be in the top six,” Mugabi said.

"It’s still in our sight. We’ve got loads of games in December to catch up.

"So as long as we do that, keep focused and keep morale high in the team, I don’t see why we can’t.

"I’m gutted that we couldn't get the result against Hibs today to close the gap even more, but hopefully we can do that in December.”

Motherwell's next league game is at home to bottom club St Mirren next Saturday.