Hibs head coach Neil Lennon has slammed Scottish referees as "amateur" and "Mickey Mouse", claiming that the standard of officiating in the league is declining sharply.

Lennon was sent to the stand by referee Kevin Clancy during his side's 2-2 draw with Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. He had been protesting a penalty awarded against his side for a handball by Ryan Porteous and angrily confronted Clancy, sarcastically clapping after he was told to leave the touchline.

He said that teams were being let down by a poor standard of refereeing and that action had to be taken.

"It's amateur, it's Mickey Mouse stuff," he said. "It needs to get better, it's not good enough.

"Every week or every other week we're talking about major decisions that are blatantly obvious and they're being called wrong. Every week I see a manager complaining about poor refereeing decisions.

"I think the standard (of refereeing) is declining as the game in Scotland is improving."

"We've had to overcome another appalling refereeing performance. It's cost us two points today, that decision.

"This is the same referee who didn't give us a clear handball against Rangers at Easter Road.

"I don't want him refereeing us again but I probably won't get my way with that."

Lennon accepted that he would probably be facing a suspension after his outburst but said that he didn't feel he had crossed a line with his protest.

He said: "I didn't think I did anywhere near enough to warrant a sending-off on the basis of my dismay at the penalty being awarded and I think having looked at it again I'm right."

Kilmarnock boss Steve Clarke was unhappy with the final result despite his side having fought back from conceding two early goals.

"We should have won the game, no doubt," he said. "We were the best team by a mile, I thought we were excellent today.

"I'm disappointed to drop two points in a game that we should've won because we were the better team from almost start to finish. It was a really disappointing start but after that we recovered well and played a lot of good stuff today.

"The first goal was really poor, it was a throw-in in front of the dugout and five seconds later it's in the back of the net, can't happen. Then a free header from a corner, can't happen.

"The overriding feeling I've got just now is disappointment that we've dropped two points at home."