MARCUS Fraser has confessed that he cost St Mirren their second win of the season against an Old Firm club on Saturday by gifting Rangers a late penalty with a rash challenge on Ryan Kent.
Fans of the Paisley outfit were furious when referee Kevin Clancy awarded the visitors a spot kick after watching the incident back on a pitchside monitor at the SMiSA Stadium.
The match official had initially shown the English winger, whose team was trailing 1-0 at that stage in the game, a yellow card for diving.
Rangers captain James Tavernier netted the spot kick to level the cinch Premiership encounter and the visitors picked up a point when Clancy blew his final whistle.
Fraser confessed that he had denied St Mirren, who he had helped to beat Celtic 2-0 at home in the league back in September, a victory with his foul.
Asked what his reaction had been when the referee booked Kent, he said: “I think I went a wee bit sheepish.
“Listen, Kent is sharp and I kind of went in too fast. I tried to stop and we clashed knee on knee. I knew when he went over to the monitor that he was probably going to give it.
“I just took myself out of the situation. I walked up to the halfway line and let everybody else do the talking. At the end of the day the referee is going to make the decision when it goes to monitor.
“You just need to wait and see what happens to be honest. It is one of those ones – sometimes you get them sometimes you don’t. You need to be careful with those kind of challenges.
“Replaying it in my head, I thought I should have just stopped, put my body in and blocked it. But I have planted my foot and it was knee on knee. I should have just put my body in and seen it out of play.”
Fraser added: “I was obviously disappointed with myself and for the team. I felt as if I have let the boys down a wee bit as I don’t think we were going to concede at all to be honest.
“During the game, Trev (St Mirren goalkeeper Carson) had a save in the first-half and a save in the second-half.
“Other than that, I think we had control over our box. There weren’t any shots at our goal. We were comfortable. That was the only way they were going to score a goal. I will take it on the chin.”
Fraser had helped St Mirren to nullify the threat that Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos and wide man Kent had posed up until the penalty award.
“The back three got around him (Morelos) all day,” he said. “When he took a heavy touch or there were balls going up to him the three of us were around him like a rash. We worked on that in the build up to the game and thankfully it worked.
“Yeah, I thought Strainer (St Mirren right back Ryan Strain) excellent against him (Kent) especially in the first-half. Even in the second-half he got tight and got up that wing against him. He handled him really well.”
St Mirren can be content with how they have performed up until the World Cup break; Stephen Robinson’s side are in seventh spot in the Premiership table and are just four points behind third-placed Aberdeen.
So can they secure a top six spot or even a European place when club football resumes next month?
"We need to keep going the way we are,” said Fraser. We also need to improve our away form (they have won just one of their six games on the road in the league). If we can raise that 50 per cent we'll be fine.
"The manager has said that to us, we just need to get that away form better. We play the same way home and away, things have just gone against us. If we brush up the away form we'll definitely be looking up the table."
