No place for it in the game.
That was the clear message from Johnstone Burgh boss Jamie McKim after he saw one of his players aggresively thrown to the ground during Saturday’s ill-tempered West of Scotland Conference A clash with Lesmahagow.
Burgh found themselves trailling 2-1 at Keanie Park before the visitors’ James Van Nuil was sent off for a reckless two-footed lunge late on.
And Lesmahagow went down to nine men after Keiran Brady’s dramatic extra-time equaliser, with Gary Nicholson receiving a red card after putting Stuart Fyfe on the floor in an ugly off the ball incident that sparked a stramash on the pitch.
McKim told Express Sport: “We equalised in the 91st minute and thought we’d be able to go on and win the game.
“It all got a bit frantic in extra-time though after they went down to nine men.
“They were much more aggressive in the second half and the first red was for a dangerous two-footed challenge, a really bad attempt at a tackle.
“The second was for a player attacking my centre half Stuart Fyfe after we’d equalised. He’s had a swing at him and then thrown him to the ground.
“There’s absolutely no place in the game for that sort of stuff. It’s unacceptable at any level. By this stage it’s time those boys grew up.
“There’s absolutely no need for that sort of behaviour in our game.”
While McKim was pleased to see his side battle back from 2-1 down to claim a point, the Burgh manager is adamant his team should have had all three after dominating proceedings at Keanie Park.
The draw leaves his side in 11th spot in Conference A and, while he was happy with Saturday’s performance, McKim admits his side simply have to start winning matches again if they’re to achieve their lofty ambitions this season.
McKim said: “It was a frustrating afternoon overall because I thought we played really well and limited them to very few chances.
“Their equaliser was a worldie from 30 yards and then the second comes from a fluke because the ball bobbled just as my keeper was going to clear it.
“If we’d taken a few of our earlier chances then it would have been a lot more comfortable, but I wasn’t too hard on the boys at full-time.
“I’ve gone through them when they’ve not been up to scratch but I really felt we were unlucky not to win given our performance.
“It looks on paper like we’ve snatched a draw in injury-time, but nothing could be further from the truth. We were gobsmacked went they went ahead and if we’d lost that game we would have been devastated.
“The group are strong though and in a strange way it was good to see they were hurting in the dressing room afterwards.
“They’re not just forgetting about it after the full-time whistle. It really matters to these boys and they’ll take that into training this week.
“We’ve got Bellshill away next weekend and fingers crossed we can get back to winning ways and get pushing up this table.”
