Martin O’Neill’s men secured a crucial 3-1 victory over the Steelmen to cut the gap on William Hill Premiership leaders Hearts to just two points.
In the second half, with the match poised at 1-1, Longelo hauled down Maeda at the back post.
Ref Beaton waved play on, until VAR intervened and ordered him to have a second look.
A penalty was then given, with Longelo receiving a straight red card for the denial of a goalscoring opportunity with no attempt to play the ball.
Read more:
“We got to see three or four angles of it, but you only really need to see the first one of it,” McCall said on BBC Sportsound.
“Longelo has just wrapped his arms around Maeda from behind him. He was just completely hauled to the ground, and I can’t believe the referee never saw it in real time.”
Motherwell manager Jens Berthel Askou did not have many complaints with either of the decisions.
“You can argue that Manny [Longelo] is holding him a little bit too long. [Daizen] Maeda’s also trying…. they’re wrestling,” Askou said.
“You see that situation a million times. Obviously, often the ball doesn’t end there. If the ball hadn’t gone there, it would never have turned into a penalty.
“There’s an opportunity for the referee to argue that there’s a holding offence. And that’s hard to argue against. I know Manny is gutted right now that he didn’t control that situation better than he did.
“And then obviously we get the double punishment with the red card, which gave us a mountain to climb at that point, because we were actually, I think, in very good control of the game there, ready to really accelerate and push for the last 20-25 minutes to get the win.”