MacCormack slams penalty award and red card as Jags collapse in Aberdeen
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Three late goals condemned bottom-placed Strathspey Thistle to defeat on Saturday after holding Highland League leaders Banks o' Dee at level pegging for most of the game.
The Grantown club were undone with twenty minutes to go when referee Owen Lawrence awarded a penalty to Banks o' Dee and brandished a red card to defender Jack Gilliland.
A second penalty and a fourth goal six minutes from time heaped further misery on the Jags.
Jags boss Robert MacCormack were treated harshly at a time when the game was in the balance.
MacCormack said: "I didn't see it clearly at the time, but now I've seen the game I think we've been done. The linesman hasn't called the player who is 4–5 yards offside. He's definitely interfering with play as if he doesn't run across Jack Gilliland, then Jack clears the ball. Jack's had a slight pull and the referee has given a soft penalty and sent him off. Even the second penalty, it's so soft. It's killed us.
"We were in the game at 1-1, looking dangerous and defending reasonably well, then in the space of five minutes we are 3-1 down with ten men and that's the luck, or the decisions that haven't been going our way lately. When you are down there at the bottom, that's seems to be the way it goes. On another day, it's Banks o' Dee that get a red card for what looked like an elbow on Jack Gilliland about ten minutes into the game. The little things just aren't going our way.
"Banks o' Dee had a fair amount of chances but for 70 minutes we looked threatening and worked very hard. When Ross Logan came on we had pace up top and what we were doing was working. It's just unfortunate that the referee and linesman have made a terrible call.
"I wanted a reaction from everybody after the Turriff game. We made some changes, some enforced and some not, and I think despite the result, I thought we did well up to the red card and the penalty."
Despite feeling like the red card should not have been issued, MacCormack says that the club will not be launching an appeal.
He added: "We appealed a red card last season against Clach, where every man and their dog thought it shouldn't have been a red card, and it got dismissed. It's hard to take, but we just have to move on."
Thistle got off to a best of starts when they opened the scoring after just ten minutes.
A ball into the area from Michael McKenzie fell to several players before it was cleared into the path of Owen Paterson – and the midfielder, without hesitance, curled the ball into the top corner of the net with a precise first time shot.
Resolute defending and goalkeeping from Steven Martin kept the home side at bay for most of the first half.
Dee's Dayshonne Golding looked the most likely to score; with Jags defender Taylor Sutherland heading off the line to prevent the striker's best effort in the early going.
But the Aberdeen side couldn't be stopped just before the hour mark when a simple finish from Max Alexander beat Martin, after he connected with a cutback from Chris Antoniazzi.
The Jags' resilience continued into the second half though, with Martin again a feature, preventing a busier home side on multiple occasions.
The deadlock was broken with 19 minutes remaining, when a foul on Golding by Jack Gilliland resulted in a red card for the Jags defender and a penalty award for Dee. Golding then scored the spot kick to put his side into the lead.
It was 3–1 on 78 minutes when Dee were awarded a second penalty award for a foul on Antoniazzi. Michael Philipson netted from the conversion, finding the bottom left corner.
A fourth came from a corner kick when substitute Lachie Macleod lashed the ball past Martin from an Antoniazzi ball into the box on 84 minutes.
Strathspey – Martin, Gilliland, Paterson, Cuthbert, Sutherland, Davies, Davison, Whitehorn, Ross, McKenzie, Loveland (Logan)
MacCormack believes his side have improved since their opener against Forres Mechanics at the beginning of the season.
The teams meet for the second time this weekend at Seafield Park, with the Grantown side hoping a win can lift them above closest rivals Clachnacuddin.
The Jags go into the match having missed out on a home meeting with Wick Academy last night after a postponement due to a snowbound pitch.
MacCormack added: “We played Forres at the beginning of the season and we were probably the better team before we conceded.
“I’d like to think we’ve improved and and are more resilient since then and as long as we are at our best, we have a chance. We have to go into these games thinking we can win.”
