Wrong ref call has cost us again

OWEN COYLE reckons referee Stevie McLean robbed his team.

And the dejected Ross County boss believes his players have now suffered a hat-trick of heartbreaking calls from officials.

McLean failed to award a spot-kick for Rangers defender David Bates’s handball of a Ross Draper header in the box.

With the scoreline at 1-0, an award would have handed the Staggies a golden chance to level.

McLean did point to the spot later for a Russell Martin offence but the scoreline was then 2-0 and the game almost gone in stoppage time.

Coyle, whose team were also victims of dubious calls in their last two losses to Kilmarnock and Motherwell, said: “They were both penalties but the one that wasn’t given looked an even bigger penalty. Draper has the header and it’s on target.

“If it doesn’t hit his hand, it’s possibly a goal. That’s huge. You know instantly when four or five players appeal that it’s a penalty.

“Steven is a good referee but John Fleming has spoken to me after the last two games to apologise for mistakes by officials. Will he phone me again?

“That one is probably more difficult in respect of the distances between players. I like to be fair and I try not to be biased in terms of my assessment.”

Draper said: “At the tine I thought it hit his hand.

“A few of the boys have seen it in the changing room and say it was a handball.

“It’s maybe the luck we’re getting at the moment. Decisions aren’t going our way.

“It feels that happens when you’re down there.”