Lauchlan fuming with ref
East Kilbride boss Martin Lauchlan slammed the inconsistency of the officials after Cowdenbeath’s late penalty award.
The Blue Brazil won a spot-kick three minutes from time when Fabio Capuano was punished for a handball in the box under pressure from Lewis Moore.
But the decision was only made after referee Gavin Duncan, who initially gave nothing, had consulted with his linesman on the opposite side of the park.
Miller’s spot-kick was saved superbly by Kilby keeper McGinley to keep Kilby level in the tie.
But Lauchlan was fuming that the officials chose to get involved in that incident after twice failing to send off Beath striker Kris Renton – who had already been booked – for late tackles on McGinley and Barry Russell.
Lauchlan said:“The officials didn’t get involved in the game when the big boy Renton up front has been booked and he goes through our goalkeeper. He’s then had a foul after that - no booking.
“But then they get involved for the penalty at the other side of the park where they can’t see it. The ball is on the other side of them, but they get involved - and that’s what’s frustrating.
“If they get involved all the time, I’m all for it.
“But what you tend to find is they’ve got the flag down, but the ref points one way and then they go the same way. They never make a decision, but then they get involved like that in a game of this magnitude at that time in the game - it’s very brave.
“I’ll look back at it again and see but at first glance there’s nothing for me.
“To give a penalty there is scandalous.”
Kilby had 59 per cent possession in the game and had nine shots at goal compared to Cowden’s seven.
And Lauchlan added: “I think we had a couple of chances where we could have won the game, but when you look at the penalty save at the end there it could have been a lot worse.
“Overall we were the better team, but I knew coming into this it would be tight and it could go either way.
“Matty made a great save to keep us in it and we go on to next week. We should have no fear.”
Cowdenbeath have now missed six penalties in a row this season and boss Gary Locke said:“I felt the linesman got it spot on. It was a handball.
“I felt Moore was the only player on the pitch who looked likely to hurt them and he gave their right back problems when he ran it him. “For me it was a penalty. “I felt the ref had a good game. It was a difficult game to manage but for me he didn’t get a lot wrong.
“We wanted to make sure we got back to Central Park without getting beat and I thought we put in a really good performance.
“It’s going to be another tough one next week, but we know we’ve got to win to stay in the league.”