‘Conned out of victory’
Cole claims Saints’ Erwin cheated to win penalty
Motherwell striker Devante Cole accused St Mirren counter part lee erwin of cheating, claiming he conned referee Bobby Madden into incorrectly awarding the home side the penalty which salvaged a point for them in Paisley on Saturday.
erwin went down after Bevis Mugabi had charged into deal with a situation which team-mate Declan Gallagher — watched again by Celtic’s head of football development Nick hammond — appeared to have under control.
there was contact made — in the empty stadium, you could hear it — and erwin, already off balance, ended up on the turf.
It may or may not have been a penalty but erwin didn’t throw himself to the ground.
New Fir Park manager Graham Alexander (right) claimed that Madden had been worn down by Saints’ constant carping about every incident but Cole, who had opened the scoring in the first half, went further.
‘ It’s always nice to get a goal, it gave us something to build on,’ said the 25-year- old. ‘It should have given us the three points as well.
‘ the ref ’ s crumbled, if I’m honest. there’s no contact — it’s a dive. It’s unlucky for us but we’ve just got to move on and bounce back from it.
‘It’s very frustrating to lose two points on a decision like that. If that penalty hadn’t been given, then they weren’t creating anything, were they?
‘we’d have come away with a 1-0 win and that’s how it should have been.’
had the visitors held out it would have been their first victory in 11 games, but the fact that they had been the better team for much of this encounter provided scant consolation f or Cole and his team-mates.
‘Yes, there were positive signs, but after 11 games without a win, there’s only so long you can go on saying t hat,’ he said.
‘ there were a number of games during that run where we should have taken all three points, not just this one. ‘I’m just hoping that we’ve drawn a line under this and that we can now just move on.’
then again, what they’re moving onto is a home game against Premiership leaders rangers, who have yet to lose in the league this season.
Cole added: ‘ that will be tough because they haven’t dropped too many points this season, but we’ve just got to put in the same kind of performance that we did against St Mirren and see how that goes.
‘I think we were strong throughout, really. we dipped off it a little bit in the second half — but even then they didn’t bother us and we managed a few openings of our own.
‘ It’s a good start for the new gaffer, but it should have been three
points. You know what it’s like when a new manager comes in — everyone wants to impress him, but he’s only been here a day and he’s trying to impose his style on us already.
‘That might take a few weeks or so as we get used to him, but we’ll kick on from here.
‘ I played against his teams a few times, but I’ve not played under him before, so I wasn’t that aware of him — you ’ r e playing against different managers all the time.
‘Although he’d only been here for 24 hours, he still managed to pass on a few thoughts to us about what he wants, but we’ll find out what’s really on his mind in the week to come.
‘ He wants to play an expansive game, that’s ideal for me. He wants us to get goals and that’s what we want as well.
‘A big part of coming back here for me was that Stephen Robinson was here. ‘He showed a lot of faith in me, but it’s now a case of adjusting to what another manager wants.’ The Steelmen can complain all they like about the legitimacy of Saints’ spot-kick, but the fact is that if they’d taken their chances they would have been out of sight by half-time. Both Cole and his strike partner, Tony Watt, had missed opportunities before the former forced home the latter’s knockdown to give his side a thoroughly merited lead at the interval. Saints improved after the break — not, in truth, a huge task — and when the spot- kick was awarded, Eamonn Brophy, making his debut from the bench after joining from Kilmarnock 24 hours earlier, wanted to take it. Brophy was Killie’s penalty king, but Saints have their own in Jamie McGrath, who sent Liam Kelly the wrong way to equalise.
‘I was looking to take it, but he just gave me that look,’ Brophy revealed. ‘I can’t just say: “I’m taking the penalties”. Not yet, anyway!
‘I was the penalty and free-kick taker at Kilmarnock, but I’ve got to respect the boys who want to take them here.
‘Yes, I wanted it but, at the end of the day, he put it away and that’s all that matters.
‘He’s the penalty-taker until he misses one. Then he’ll not be getting another one — I’ll be jumping right on them!’
ST MIRREN (4-1-3-2): Alnwick ; Fraser 6, McCarthy 6, Shaughnessy 5, Tait 6; Doyle-Hayes 6; McGrath , McAllister 5 (Brophy 5 ), Erhahon 4 (Durmus 6); Connolly 6, Erwin 6. Subs not used: Sheron, Flynn, MacPherson, Finlayson, Foley, Lyness, Jamieson. Booked: Doyle-Hayes. MOTHERWELL (4-1-3-2): Kelly ; O’Donnell 6, Mugabi 5, Gallagher , Carroll 6; O’Hara 6; Hastie 5 (White 2), Campbell 6, Polworth 6; Cole 6 (Maguire 83), Watt 5. Subs not used: Morrison, Devine, Cornelius, Crawford, Seedorf, Grimshaw, McGinley. Booked: O’Hara. Man of the match: Devante Cole. Referee: Bobby Madden.