Derek McInnes was left fuming after Kilmarnock were denied a penalty in their Viaplay Cup semi final defeat to holders Celtic at Hampden. Giorgos Giakoumakis bundled Joe Wright over inside the box in the dying minutes but Willie Collum failed to point to the spot.
And Giakoumakis rubbed salt into the Ayrshire side’s wounds when he scored the clincher at the other end after Daizen Maeda’s opener for Ange Postecoglou’s men. But McInnes was raging at the officials, insisting Collum or VAR Greg Aitken should have awarded them a penalty.
He spoke to Viaplay after the game and raged: “We should have had a penalty, absolutely we should have. It’s two hands - Giakoumakis has got his arms wrapped around Joe Wright and he goes down. He can’t get to the ball. The way the throw has come in, he can’t get to it. He’s come through the back of him. It’s a penalty every day.
“The referee has a great view of it and I’m really disappointed with that because for me it’s a penalty. I felt it was a penalty at the time and even more having seen it. We came here to get a job done and we needed the right decisions to be made.
“Celtic are a top class side and I’m disappointed with the goal we lost. We should have dealt better with the set piece. When you come up against the talent Celtic have you know you have to suffer at times and do a lot of the things right but the effort and spirit was brilliant and we stuck to the task.
“We needed people to do their jobs right and my player did for the vast majority of the game and we should have had a penalty kick. I didn’t ask about the penalty, there’s no point. VAR should have been speaking together - not me after the event.
''What's the point in me speaking to the referee? VAR should be speaking to the referee. Not a conversation with me, after the event, when Celtic are through to the Final. That, pre VAR, post VAR, that's a penalty kick and how we can't get to the right decision is... Giakoumakis gets a bit excited, he's clumsy, it's a strikers challenge, two hands around his waist.' Whoever is in the VAR has to be big enough to say 'are you sure you have seen this right? You need to come and see this again.''
