‘Crazy’ calls are sickener for Kearney
KILMARNOCK’S extraordinary knack of recovering from adversity was gloriously evident again as they came from behind to win for the fourth game running and go joint second in the table.
However, St Mirren were left furious at key decisions made by the assistant referees as they slumped to their seventh defeat in their last eight matches.
Firstly Douglas Ross ruled Aaron Tshibola’s header — which proved to be the winner — was over the line in 68 minutes. Then David Roome flagged Simeon Jackson offside in 70 minutes to deny Saints an equaliser.
The Paisley side’s manager, Oran Kearney, said: ‘The two decisions are crazy. For their goal, it’s one hell of a call if it’s the right call because the header comes at the back post where there is a huge amount of traffic.
‘I’ll need to see that one back but on the Simeon one he’s onside by about two yards. We have our own footage and it’s the left-back Greg Taylor who is playing him on.
‘That’s a momentum swinger. We would have had a real shot of adrenaline with 15 minutes to go and those are the ones that are hard to take. Both decisions are questionable and have cost us.’
Saints were bright from the start and they deserved to take the lead in 14 minutes. Greg Stewart gave away a free-kick on the left side of the Killie box when he barged into Ryan Flynn. Adam Hammill fired in a swerving effort that flew into the right corner of the net.
They had knocked on the door two minutes earlier when Flynn picked out Paul McGinn on the right of the box and his header was deflected wide for a corner.
Hammill had another chance in 21 minutes from another free-kick situation after Kirk Broadfoot was booked for fouling Jackson but he shot straight into the wall, hitting Stuart Findlay on the face. Referee Willie Collum stopped the game to allow the Killie man treatment, then gave the Rugby Park side possession by dropping the ball for goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald.
Instead of kicking the ball out of play, MacDonald launched it forward and Killie nearly scored as Stewart set up Eamonn Brophy, whose right-foot shot just missed the top corner of the net.
Saints keeper Craig Samson was booked for complaining to Collum and his anger was understandable.
Killie were a different prospect in the second half and soon found the equaliser. Samson pushed Findlay’s powerful shot wide in 56 minutes and, from the resulting corner, Killie levelled.
Chris Burke drove the ball to the edge of the box in a pre-planned move and Alan Power’s right-foot shot found the top-left corner.
MacDonald then made a pointblank save to deny Jackson after 63 minutes and it proved pivotal as Killie took the lead five minutes later. Stewart collected a short corner from Bright Enobakhare, and lifted the ball to the back post. Tshibola made contact with a downward header and the ball was judged to have crossed the line before Samson managed to claw it away.
Two minutes later, St Mirren thought they had levelled the game. MacDonald made a brilliant save to deny Stephen McGinn and Jackson slammed home the rebound but he was given offside.
Kilmarnock boss Steve Clarke said: ‘We showed good character to come back again but it’s a bad habit we need to get rid of that we have to come back in games.
‘St Mirren were really good in the first half, they got about us and disrupted our rhythm and stopped us doing what we are good at.
‘We had a chat at half-time to put things right and in the second half you saw the true Kilmarnock.
‘I said to the players it is difficult to win four games in a row in this league but we have done that. We have to keep our feet on the ground and keep working hard.’