Irvine Meadow manager Colin Spence criticised a ‘very soft' penalty call for wrecking his side’s hopes of staging a second half comeback against Kilwinning Rangers on Saturday.
Meadow slipped to a 3-1 defeat after David Syme's spot kick rounded off the scoring with 15 minutes left of the West of Scotland Premier Division clash.
But co-boss Spence felt his players were on top until Neil Slooves brought down Gavin Millar for the penalty award.
A stunning Jamie Martin strike had cut the Buffs lead to 2-1 before whistler Sean Henderson made the controversial call.
And Spence reckons Medda were hard done by – despite admitting his side were poor in the opening 45 minutes.
He said: “I thought it was a very soft penalty to say the least. It was a big decision in the game and it went against us. I think the referee’s got it wrong.
“First half just wasn’t good enough from us. Kilwinning were the better team all over the park.
“They knocked us out our stride a bit and didn’t let us play. They forced us to go long a lot and when we do that we’re not anywhere near as creative.
“We said to the boys at half time, ‘we can’t be any worse than that, go out and at least win the second half for us.’
“Second half we looked more like ourselves. We switched it and went to a front three to try and stop Kilwinning getting out and force ourselves into the game.
“It certainly worked but the big decision didn’t go our way.”
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