Caley Thistle head coach Billy Dodds is refusing to rule out an appeal against the late red card shown to Michael Gardyne in the Premier Sports Cup defeat to Hearts at Tynecastle.
Veteran winger Gardyne was dismissed by referee Nick Walsh in the latter stages of the 1-0 loss for a challenge on goalscorer Jamie Walker.
The decision means Gardyne will miss Caley Jags’ opening day Championship match against Arbroath on Saturday.
Dodds was frustrated the challenge was met with a harsher punishment than tackles he deemed similar earlier in the match, and he says he will closely review the footage in the coming days.
Dodds said: “I am going to look at that. I thought there was a couple of niggles throughout the game where other players got yellows.
“The way I would put it nobody would have batted an eyelid – I know there is pressure from the fans but if Nick Walsh gave a yellow everyone would have moved on happily. Hearts would have moved on happy.
“There was a couple of bookings in the game that were late challenges and I thought move on. But it wasn’t to be so I’m disappointed with the red card and I will have look and see where we are with it.”
Despite Caley Jags exiting the competition, Dodds was pleased with his side’s showing against the Premiership Jambos after they had taken just one point from two matches against lower league sides Stirling Albion and Cove Rangers.
Dodds added: “I think you can see we have worked hard. The boys have taken it in and carried it out on the pitch.
“At times I was pretty comfortable. I know they had the chances, and Mark Ridgers was brilliant, but at times we looked really comfortable.
“I just wanted us to have that wee bit of belief going the other way. We had one or two wee chances, Tom Walsh was denied by a great challenge.
“I would have loved a real positive result but I’m happy. There are no negatives from that.”
Hearts victory saw them through to the last-16 where they were unseeded, before being drawn to face Celtic at Parkhead.
Jambos boss Robbie Neilson was satisfied with the outcome, and he said: “We didn’t get seeded but we won four out of four. The nature of this season, teams will get 3-0 victories for games getting postponed which is always going to make it difficult.
“I can’t really ask any more of the players. We created loads of chances and were sound defensively. We just didn’t have that final moment.”