GORDON SMITH today told St Mirren boss Gus MacPherson he will take whatever referee he is given - even if it is Eddie Smith again.

MacPherson was upset when an appeal to the SFA against Will Haining's red card in the game against Celtic at Parkhead on Sunday failed.

Smith sent off Haining, who will be suspended for his side's showdown with Kilmarnock at Love Street this weekend, for a challenge on Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.

He was the same match official who awarded the Hoops a late free-kick - from which Shunsuke Nakamura scored the winner - in a game in Paisley at the end of last season.

But SFA chief Smith has backed the integrity of Scotland's top whistlers and insisted clubs would not dictate who took charge of this matches.

Smith said: "I don't think there would be any problem at all (with Eddie Smith refereeing a St Mirren game again).

"If we start appointing referees on the basis that one club doesn't like them or whatever, then that would be a very dangerous route.

"We just feel that every referee is impartial and acts in such a manner. I wouldn't think that we'd consider for one second moving referees about depending on what club was involved. I would hate to think that would be the case."

Smith has expressed hope that a meeting between Scotland's top managers and referees before the Scotland v Northern Ireland match at Hampden next Wednesday will be a success.

Donald McVicar, head of referee development at the SFA, has arranged the get-together Smith added: "We have to build relationships and we don't want any animosity on the go. Managers have to realise that we are all in the game together. Referees have a job to do and we don't have a game without them.

"Managers get frustrated because their jobs are on the line. I got frustrated as a player myself at times. But you have to get on with it and it would be better it we could talk. Referees are being highlighted to a huge extent, but mistakes are mistakes. You'd hope that managers would appreciate that at times and accept them. They even themselves out over the course of a season."

Meanwhile, linesmen in England are locked in a bitter pay dispute with their employers ahead of the opening weekend of the Barclays Premier League. They are upset they only get £175 for a match - while some whistlers earn £57,000 a year.