91Èȱ¬

St Mirren caretaker manager Gary Teale has apologised to Steven McLean after criticising the referee's performance in Saturday's defeat by Dundee.

Teale had thought Dundee's first goal was offside - and that striker Yoann Arquin should not have been sent off.

"I gave him a phone and apologised," Teale told 91Èȱ¬ Scotland.

"I got the offside decision wrong in the heat of the moment. I am still disappointed with Yoann's sending off, but it is a matter of opinion."

It means that St Mirren will not be appealing the red card, which will mean his new signing will be suspended for Friday's Scottish Premiership trip to face Partick Thistle.

"I still don't think it's simulation," he said of the second yellow card shown to the Frenchman. "I don't think he's dived.

"He stumbles over. It's not as if he falls over looking for a penalty.

"But it is a split-second decision and open to interpretation, so the referee might stick to his opinion and I don't think there is any point in taking it further."

Captain Stephen Thompson's latest recovery from injury will compensate for the loss of Arquin.

The Scottish FA has written to Teale asking him to explain comments he made about the referee in post-match interviews.

"I will need to count to five or 10 after the games before talking to the press after games," admitted Teale.

The former Scotland winger revealed that attracting new talent to the club ahead of the closure of the January transfer window had proved troublesome since becoming player-manager.

"That has been the hardest part," he said. "I thought it might have been easier to bring in players, but for one reason or another it's proved a lot more difficult than I thought.

"We've got a few we've been looking at, but realistically, we are hoping for probably one more player.

"We've not really got lot of time now as we only have until Tuesday to get something sorted.

"I knew about the budget constraints and had to move other ones out to bring players in."