East Kilbride Thistle boss Garry O’Hanlon says referee Scott Douglas apologised for wrongly red carding his goalkeeper in a 1-0 defeat at Vale of Clyde.
Iain Stewart had replaced injured Kieran Bell at the interval of the West of Scotland League Third Division clash.
But 10-15 minutes into the half, he was sent off for ‘handling the ball outside of his area’ – despite there being a ball-mark on his orange shorts, where it had connected with his thigh.
Disappointed O’Hanlon demanded an explanation over the dismissal and says the whistler held his hands up over his mistake.
But despite the loss, and ending the game with Barry Russell in goal, O’Hanlon reckons the performance could be a turning point on his side’s sticky start to their league campaign, with just one win in seven attempts.
He said: “We got our goalie sent off early in the second half, and the referee then said he had made a mistake in doing that.
“It had a bit of an impact on the game!
“I was pretty calm. I went in and spoke to him after the game.
“Iain Stewart had started on the bench but my goalkeeper had got injured and I had to swap them at half-time.
“Iain has ran out, controlled it with his thigh, but the referee said it was his hand, so I went in and asked for an explanation after the game.
“He said ‘I’ve made a mistake’ and it wasn’t a handball, so he’s put his hand up, and you can’t ask for anything other than that.
“You can’t change it, it’s done. It’s not as if you can make anything of it, so I said it was decent of him to admit it.”
Thistle had shipped 18 goals in their previous three games with an 8-1 Junior Cup exit to Glenafton last week following on from 6-1 and 4-1 thrashings in the league at the hands of Larkhall Thistle and Lanark United, respectively.
So it was progress to see the Jags suffer a narrow defeat.
O’Hanlon added: “The performance was a lot better than what it had been in previous weeks.
“The guys showed a lot of character and we were unlucky.
“We made a few chances but didn’t really get the rub of the green, and the goal we conceded was on the counter-attack.
“But we need to get out of the position that we’re in.
“We’re seven games in and have only won one, so I know it’s not good enough, from my point of view.
“Saturday gave us a lot of positives. We changed the shape a wee bit, we were a wee bit more aggressive, but more importantly we stopped a lot of goals going in.
“We had lost three on the bounce prior to that, and conceded quite a lot in those games, so we did try and improve.
“Saturday was a turning point for us, because the boys came in and emphasised how much they had put in.
“I had to deputise with centre-mid going to centre-back, and Barry Russell going in goals – you couldn’t make it up.”
Thistle now head into a home clash against Premier League side Darvel in the South Challenge Cup second round, and O’Hanlon is looking for a morale-boosting show from his side.
“That’s a game that’s a free hit to an extent, because they’ll be one of the favourites to win the tournament,” he said.
“But it has been a disappointing start for us and we need to turn it around somewhere.
“We’ve got Carluke a week on Saturday and that give us something to look forward, to try and kick on from there.
“If we can apply ourselves the same this week and into Saturday, it gives us something to build on.”
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