Hibernian manager Neil Lennon hit out at his "nonsensical" double punishment during his side's 1-0 defeat by Brondby after being sent to the stand for protesting over a disallowed goal.
Lennon lasted half an hour in the dugout on his Hibs debut before falling foul of officious Spanish referee Juan Martinez Munueara, whose assistant had ruled Jason Cummings offside from Martin Boyle's low cross.
Lennon said: "We had a legitimately perfect, brilliant goal disallowed. He's onside and I was angry because, firstly, he (the assistant referee) got it wrong, and he wasn't up with play.
"I remonstrated with the linesman and was sent off for no reason whatsoever. I didn't think the referee had a good game, which is what I expected after looking at his record before the game. The relationship with the two linesmen was poor.
"I want to appeal it, because it's just a piece of nonsense. It's the first time in Europe that I've been sent to the stand so I'm really irked by that.
"It looked to me like he (Munueara) wanted to be the star of the show rather than the players."
Hibs, who conceded a goal after 16 seconds, also thought they should have had a penalty midway through the second half when Grant Holt went down inside the box.
"If the referee doesn't book Grant then it should have been a penalty," Lennon said. "He's not going to fall over on his own. It looked like there was contact, but it was minimal. A lot of his decisions were pretty inconsistent."
Hibs gifted Brondby the lead when Otso Virtanen fumbled a harmless-looking effort into the path of Kamil Wilczek, but their response delighted their new manager.
"My team were superb against a very good side," he said. "They gave me everything and left nothing on the pitch.
"We just lacked a bit of sharpness in the final third, which is totally understandable. There were some brilliant individual performances.
"Having been rocked by a really poor goal from our point of view, we were spooked for five or 10 minutes, then the reaction after that was excellent."
Brondby boss Alexander Zorniger praised Hibs and their fans, and felt the home side could easily have drawn given their play.
"We scored a similar one in Leipzig in 8.6 seconds but that one was okay," he said.
"But my team showed great willingness and courage against a really strong opponent.
" We aren't used to playing against teams with that pace and power but it was impressive how my players did their job, especially in the second half when I don't think they had a chance."
Source: PA
