Chris Strain vented his growing frustration at referee Calum Scott after Kilwinning Rangers suffered a title setback against Troon on Saturday.
The Buffs boss was furious with the decision to send off Garry Fleming – seconds after Troon’s Dean Keanan escaped with a booking for a reckless challenge – in a game that ended 1-1.
Strain refused to blame the result squarely on the whistler but he insisted Scott’s officiating left a lot to be desired – and not for the first time.
“A minute before Garry was sent off, he was taken out by Dean Keenan and even Deano himself was honest enough to admit it was a red card all day long,” said Strain.
“The referee deems it worthy of a yellow but when Garry goes into a challenge that was by no means any worse, the red card comes out.
“There’s just no consistency there. Both decisions are baffling.
“Calum Scott is a Grade One development referee and that doesn’t say a lot for the calibre of referees.
“I think that’s 18 times he’s been in charge of our games and we’ve won only twice.
“You can say that it’s been our fault in a number of those games but we don’t have a poor disciplinary record or a poor win ratio.
“Ultimately, we have developed a culture at this club about not making excuses and I’m not going to blame the referee for the
result.
“We were probably not quite good enough on the day. Conditions were poor but I felt we weren’t quite at it and didn’t do enough in the final third.
“Troon will maybe even feel they did enough in the second half to win the game.”
“It’s disappointing though because Garry will be suspended for the next two games at an important stage of the season.”
