By David Forrest and Ewen Livingstone
Partick Thistle manager Kris Doolan was left confused and frustrated by refereeing inconsistency which led to the Jags dropping points against Ayr at Somerset Park on Saturday.
Twenty-five minutes in, Ayr were awarded a penalty after Aaron Muirhead was deemed to have handled the ball in the box.
“It’s not even a penalty kick,” said Doolan on the club’s Jagzone service post-game. “It kind of brushes across Aaron’s chest. His arms are down.”
Highlights indicate that the ball hit his chest and then his arm, which were down by his side.
Doolan then took aim at the lack of consistency around the new handball directives laid on this season by referees and the SFA.
“We’ve all been to these meetings before where the referees talk about your arm being out, and what’s stopping the direction of the ball. To me, at the time, I didn’t think here was a lot in it, but looking back it’s even less.”
Thistle keeper Miles Roberts saved the resultant penalty to cheers from the Thistle end, only for referee Ross Hardie to demand the penalty be retaken due to Roberts being off his line.
“To me, he’s jumping about, he’s bouncing the bar and he gets told off to stop hitting the bar,” said Doolan. “He kind of steps off his line [before the kick is taken], goes back, steps off his line, goes back. His heel’s probably on the line. The linesman’s told me he’s miles off the line. If you’re going to be retaking them every time literally a goalkeeper steps an inch off the line, you’re retaking them all.”
Anton Dowds converted his penalty second time round to give Ayr the lead. Minutes later, Thistle fans felt even harder done by, when they had cries for a penalty of their own waved away when Paddy Reading charged down a shot.
“To say that [the Ayr penalty] is a definite penalty, and not give one at the other end for what, to me, looks like a definite penalty… it’s a sore one,” noted Doolan.
Thistle equalised on 74 minutes, when Harry Milne leaped high to head in from six yards out, with the game finishing 1-1.
Left back Milne gave his thoughts post-game: “I thought in the first half the centre midfielders weren’t able to get on the ball. I think we were trying to go back to front too quickly. The game became stretched. They got a wee foothold after we’d made a strong start.
“I thought in the second half we got on the ball more and we created opportunities a lot more. There were good passing moves and I think that was the most important thing, and on another day, we could’ve won.”
The 1-1 draw saw Ayr United continue their undefeated start to the league season after five games. The Honest Men currently sit second place, one point off leaders Falkirk, while Thistle moved up to fifth.
Ayr manager Scott Brown felt their performance left a lot to be desired. He said: “Did we look like we were going to win the game? Probably not. So we’ll take the point but we should still be better than we were. We need to control games and we didn’t do that today.” Brown gave an update to concerned Ayr fans on Anton Dowds, after the free-scoring striker hobbled off with an injury on the 66th minute.
“We had injuries but they are part and parcel of the game and we have a squad to deal with that. It was important not to lose the game when we weren’t at our best today. You come away with a point and at the end of the day the lads have dug in deep and got something.”
Both sides will look to return to winning ways in Glasgow on Saturday as Ayr travel to Hampden to face Queen’s Park, while Thistle host Dunfermline at Firhill.
