Martindale says everyone saw
DAVID MARTINDALE was left counting the potential cost of two perceived penalty blunders from Kevin Clancy as St Johnstone’s survival surge gained fresh momentum.
The Livingston manager was ‘fuming’ as Europa League qualifying hopes, top-six revenue and prize money pots were all subjected to a possible fatal hit.
St Johnstone moved six points clear of Dundee in the relegation places thanks to Callum Hendry’s early spot-kick.
While that was disputed by Martindale on account of the officials missing an offside call on Murray Davidson in the build-up to the award, that wasn’t even his main gripe in the game.
Five minutes from time, Livingston were denied a chance to level the score — the least their play deserved — by Clancy refusing to penalise a Dan Cleary handball. The Saints defender changed the direction of the ball with his arm as he lay on the turf as the home defence survived another attack.
Clancy waved play on and Zander Clark produced a fine block to prevent substitute Odin Bailey equalising.
Martindale said: ‘Everyone in the stadium, including the seagulls, knew it was a stonewall penalty.
‘How it’s not given, I’ll never know. That decision could be massive for this football club. A point could be worth anything between half a million and £2m. I don’t want to talk to Kevin Clancy. I asked how he got it wrong. You don’t get anything back. I spoke to Steven McLean, the fourth official; he calmed me down.
“They are only human beings. I get that. I could never do the job, I’d be sacked in a month.
‘But the sooner we get VAR in Scottish football the better because, for me, a horrendous decision went against us. What do I say to the players that are sitting in there gutted? They have
every right to feel hard done by and so do I.’
Livingston are mired in the mid-table mess that is the scrap for top-six places.
They require to defeat Motherwell at home next Saturday while hoping either Hibernian or Ross County fail to win.
‘We’ve still got a fighting chance but it’s out of our hands,’ complained Martindale. ‘I’m bitterly disappointed we lost this game. I praised the players, they controlled large portions of the game.
‘But when you give the opposition a goal of a start, it gives them something to hang on to.
‘St Johnstone defended their 18-yard box extremely well. The scoreline allowed them to sit in their final third and give us possession.’
When on-form striker Hendry took a stray elbow from Jack Fitzwater in the face bang on three minutes, Clancy had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
Max Stryjek seemed to get a boot to the ball but Hendry’s power down the middle was sufficient.
He celebrated his seventh goal since returning from Kilmarnock on loan by nursing his sore cheek. Then it was over to defensive colleagues to do what they did best so many times last season, including against Livingston in the League Cup final — see out a 1-0 victory.
Clark snared Alan Forrest’s curling effort as it sailed towards the top corner and produced a superb stretch and stop of Sebastian Soto’s fierce shot from an angle.
In the second half, Ayo Obileye’s 20-yard drive took a deflection but Clark adjusted superbly and the excellent Davidson cleared under pressure from Nicky Devlin on the rebound.
Martindale threw centrehalf Obileye up front for the six minutes of stoppage time and watched him sent a free header wastefully wide as time expired.
A second McDiarmid Park win in succession for Callum Davidson’s outfit has dragged them to within six points of both St Mirren and Aberdeen with six games remaining.
Davidson, who missed the previous victory over Motherwell with Covid, enjoyed the rare luxury of fielding the same side.
He’ll hope the injury that forced Tony Gallacher off late in the first half and the hamstring problem besetting Nadir Ciftci are not problems for the trip to Parkhead next Saturday.
‘It was the first time we’ve had to leave players out of the squad,’ said Davidson.
‘I’ve had an array of choices, I was delighted with the three points and it all looks positive going towards the end of the season. We were in a really difficult position after Christmas but you can see the fighting spirit and the support for each other.’