Willie Miller, the Aberdeen director of football, has stood by the comments posted on the club’s official website on Monday which had excoriated Steven Nicholls, the relatively inexperienced referee, who had sent off two Aberdeen players during the Pittodrie club’s 2-0 defeat by Hibernian at Easter Road on Saturday.

At Miller’s behest, Aberdeen had slammed Nicholls for being “hell-bent” on doling out yellow and red cards at the weekend. The referee sent off Maurice Ross and Chris Maguire, of Aberdeen, while issuing six yellow cards in the process.

The official, according to Aberdeen, had been “blindy determined to stamp his authority from the off... with the inevitable scenario of five yellow cards being issued before half-time when there had hardly been a strong tackle in the opening 45 minutes.”

Aberdeen’s website even went on to say: “Nine men against 11 (perhaps make that 12!) for the best part of half an hour was an unequal situation.”

The SFA is thought to have taken a dim view of Aberdeen’s comments, but Miller yesterday said that he stood by the club’s remarks, and was showing little contrition.

“I think we are trying to make some valid points here,” Miller said. “We had a fantastic following to watch us at Easter Road — around 2,000 fans — but we ended up with nine men, though there was hardly a half-tackle in the game. In fact, the worst tackle of the match was probably when Fraser Fyvie got carried off.

“We’ve got to try to protect our fans — and I don’t think our fans got a fair go at the game on Saturday.

“The game is facing a lot of criticism at the moment, but I’d hope that what we are saying will highlight this matter. I’d like to see referees manage to get to half-time at least without having to issue any bookings.”

Miller said he believed the refereeing of the game at Easter Road on Saturday spoke of a wider issue facing football right across Britain.

“It is something that is in our game,” he said. “There are a lot of sending-offs in the [Barclays Premier League] too [there were nine in total at the weekend], and I don’t think it is valid. I don’t think the game is dirty in any way.

“I would like to see some of the old refs back again — refs with a bit of personality, who give a little leeway and are not booking people constantly. I don’t think it does the game any justice.

“We’d like to have that discussion [with the SFA] and see how we might improve our game in general.”