MORTON officials are considering asking the SFA to take action against referee Craig Thomson for his handling of their controversial game against Hamilton.

Ton players, coaches and fans were all incensed when Thomson ruled that Chris Templeman had handled the ball before his late equaliser at New Douglas Park.

The whistler, and his linesman Ross Haswell, had appeared to award the Cappielow club the strike before being surrounded by Hamilton players and changing his mind.

And Morton boss Jim McInally, who was ordered off along with his assistant Martin Clark, confirmed the Greenock club intend to take matters further.

Jim commented: "Both Martin and myself aren't proud of how we conducted ourselves and we won't be appealing against our orderings off.

"But we can't just let this pass without doing something. Ultimately, we would like to see the referee demoted or punished for his actions.

"With hindsight, our big mistake was in agreeing to restart the match afterwards. We should have taken our players off the park.

"We are not sure how we take this further, but we have started looking into the rules to see how we can appeal against the decision. The goal was given. If this had happened in a Celtic or Rangers game there would have been a riot."

Meanwhile, McInally has dismissed claims Templeman admitted to Hamilton keeper Bryn Halliwell that he had handled the ball. He explained: "Chris said: If you had used your hands then you might have saved it.'" Italian referees' chief Pierluigi Collina has dropped Mauro Bergonzi from this week's Serie A and B matches after he wrongly awarded two penalties against Juventus in their 3-1 defeat at Napoli. The whistler could be banned for a month.