Shotts Bon Accord boss John McKeown insists a “terrible” refereeing decision in Saturday’s defeat to Blantyre Victoria kept his side in the West of Scotland First Division relegation zone.
The Hannah Park side looked to be on course for a precious point that would have lifted them out of the bottom three, but two goals in the final three minutes from Vics inflicted their 12th defeat of the season.
McKeown’s men were already struggling with Chris Meikle, Adam Bryson, Craig Crawford, Kamil Krol and Dean Sutherland all missing due to a combination of injuries, unavailability and suspension.
And they were left reeling when referee Michael McCart didn’t give a foul for a challenge on Kyle Richford and Vics went up the park to break the deadlock through Dale Jones, who then clinched the win from the penalty spot in the 90th minute.
Gutted gaffer McKeown said: “It looked like it was going to end 0-0 but the referee has had a bit of a shocker.
“Kyle Richford got fouled from behind. It was blatant for everyone to see and even the player who did it said to me after the game he couldn’t believe the referee didn’t give a foul.
“The referee doesn’t give it, they break up the park and then they score from that situation, so it is a big moment in the game.
“In terms of the game, we didn’t create enough to win it. I thought it had draw written all over it until that decision by the ref.
“A terrible decision has undone us and then they break up the park and get a penalty - which was a stonewaller - when we were chasing the game.
“It was also a case of having too many players missing in important positions. We had no centre-halves due to injuries and unavailability so we were at the bare bones defensively.
“But it is no excuse for the defeat, most teams have injuries to contend with at this stage of the season. We just weren’t good enough. We just need to take it on the chin and move on.”
The defeat came off the back of an important 3-1 win over Johnstone Burgh last Wednesday night, where Krol, Paul McGeough and Ally Martin were on target.
McKeown added: “We probably played our best football this season in the first 45 minutes against Johnstone Burgh. We were going really well and got ourselves a 2-0 lead at half-time.
“Johnstone Burgh had a penalty save just before half time after a good save by Johnny Murdoch. They got another penalty right after half time and scored that one, but we responded right away.
“That kept up our good home form. We’ve won two and drawn one out of the last three but we need to dust ourselves down for another two games this week.”
Shotts now host Neilston tonight and they travel to Whitletts Victoria on Saturday.
“The games are coming thick and fast,” said McKeown. “We have some massive games coming up and we need to get points on the board.
“It’s a big scramble for points right now and, unfortunately for us, the teams we are playing are all involved in the battle.
“We need to just focus on ourselves and play more like we did on Wednesday instead of Saturday because we looked a bit leggy against Blantyre.
“I’m hoping a couple of players will be back for the next couple of games. We need these guys to get back into shape.
“The players need to keep digging deep but they are giving it their all.”
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