Rutherglen Glencairn boss Willie Harvey was disappointed to only take a point from St Cadoc’s, and says his side were denied to stonewall penalties.
Glens twice fought back to draw 2-2 through goals from Martin McBride in 62 minutes and Mick O’Byrne a minute into stoppage time of their West of Scotland League First Division clash.
Harvey says the Saints keeper wiped out Jack McIlveen as he raced through on goal, and later tripped McBride as he attempted to round him and score.
But he did concede that Glens keeper Matt McGinley made a fine save at 1-0 to keep them in the game.
Harvey said: “I’m disappointed in the referee’s decisions, because we should have had two penalties.
“The keeper has come out and wiped Jack McIlveen out. We asked the referee why he didn’t give the penalty and his answer was ‘because your player won the header’.
“The other one we weren’t sure about, but now I’ve seen it on the highlights, Martin McBride has gone right through, gone round the keeper, and he’s dived by took Martin down and then caught the ball.
“I gave the referee the benefit of the doubt on that one, because we weren’t sure from the distance we were at, but when I saw the highlights it was a stonewall penalty as well.”
It leaves Rutherglen 14th in the 16-team division with two points from their opening three games, but Harvey was happy with the overall performance.
He added: “It’s probably the best we’ve played, after the first 20 minutes.
“We didn’t have our shape properly, players were out of position and we lost a silly goal, but once we sorted that out and settled into it we started controlling the game, I felt.
“Fortunately at 1-0 Matt McGinley has made an absolutely terrific save and it kept us right in the game – at 2-0 it might have been a bit of a mountain to climb.
“But we got the equaliser, and I felt we were on the front foot, but a couple of mistakes led to them making it 2-1.
“I’ve got to applaud my players because they never put their heads down, they went for it again.
“It showed a wee bit of character that it was in the 90th minute we equalised, and we actually had an opportunity straight after that to make it 3-2!
“I’m disappointed in the end not to take three points, but I’d have been a hell of a lot more disappointed if we hadn’t taken any.”
Glens host Finnart in round one of the South Challenge Cup on Saturday.
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