David Moyes believed Real Sociedad were deserved winners against eight-man Cordoba at Anoeta.
The Basques recorded an eventual 3-1 victory over the Andalusians, who had Aleksandar Pantic sent off for a professional foul on six minutes before Inigo Lopez and Dani Pinillos joined him late on.
Imanol Agirretxe, Chory Castro and Alfreo Finnbogason were on target for the Txuri-urdin after Florin Andone had given the visitors a surprise lead, a result Moyes felt was fully justified despite the dismissals.
“I think referees always influence games and in this League it’s happened to me in every game,” the Scot told a Press conference.
“If we are not looking at the rules then I think the first [sending-off] deserved a yellow card. However, the rules say that if he is the last man then it has to be a red, which is what happened in this case, so he should have been dismissed, although I don’t like it.
“Even so, although the referee did influence the game I think we fully deserved our victory.”
La Real move up to ninth in the table but Moyes thinks there is still too much to do to achieve a place in Europe.
“My first job was to avoid relegation, which we have not yet done, while we must continue to look upwards.
“My plan is for this club to improve and once again compete for the European places, but I don’t think we can do that this year.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to do so next season,” he added.
