East Kilbride manager Chris Aitken is hoping to avoid a touchline ban after his sending off in his team’s 3-1 Lowland League victory against University of Stirling on Saturday.
A Cameron Elliot double coupled with a Neil McLaughlin penalty secured victory for a Kilby side not on top form, but good enough to win the match at K-Park.
Conor Doan pulled one back for Stirling with the game still at 2-1 and Elliot passed up the chance for a hat-trick in order to allow penalty taker McLaughlin to finish off proceedings.
The Lowland League title race is over and Kilby will play in the fifth tier again next season after Bonnyrigg Rose secured their status as title winners.
Aitken was dismissed on the hour-mark at the weekend after he was accused of questioning the integrity of referee Chris Graham. He puts that down to a misunderstanding.
The EK boss said: “The red card was obviously a disappointment but to be fair to the referee, it was just a complete misunderstanding.
“I thought we should have had a penalty for a foul on Joao Victoria.
“He actually booked him and when I asked why, he said it was for diving.
“Everybody there saw that there was contact and he asked whether I was questioning his integrity, which wasn’t the case.
“Joao was about to score and he was brought down. But it’s one of these things in football.
“I’ll move on and take any punishment that comes, and hopefully I won’t miss too many games on the touchline.”
While the performance perhaps wasn’t up to the standard of recent weeks, Aitken says it was good to see his men win in a less inspiring fashion at K-Park.
Kilby are third in the table and are level on points with Celtic ‘B’ with a game in hand over the young Hoops team.
Aitken said: “I can’t be too harsh on the guys as they have been outstanding the last seven or eight weeks. Sometimes, it’s good to get a bad victory if there is such a thing.
“We didn’t play well but we got the three points and it keeps us in touch with Celtic. That is the big thing. The performance was disappointing but that’s due to the standards the guys have set over the last four or five weeks.”
Aitken’s men face Dalbeattie Star in Lowland League Cup action this Wednesday after last week’s scheduled midweek clash was postponed. They then host Gala Fairydean Rovers in the league on Saturday.
But despite sending them into those games with a brace, Elliot couldn’t escape jibes from his boss and teammates.
Aitken explained: “We had a wee bit of a laugh and a joke. I thought he bottled it to take it. Neil McLaughlin asked Cameron if he wanted to take but the top professional Cameron is, he told Neil he was the penalty taker, and to make sure he scored.
“It was a crucial point in the game as it was still 2-1 and anything could have happened. We had a wee laugh as we were all saying Cameron bottled taking it for his hat-trick.”
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