Falkirk boss John McGlynn left aggrieved by refereeing ‘inconsistency’ after St Mirren loss
Falkirk boss John McGlynn left ‘aggrieved’ by refereeing ‘inconsistency’ after St Mirren loss.
John McGlynn hasn’t made a habit of criticising refereeing performances during his Falkirk tenure - but he felt “aggrieved” after a couple of big moments didn’t go his side’s way against St Mirren.
The Bairns, who could have secured a spot in the Scottish Premiership’s top six with just a point on Saturday, lost 2-1 at home despite in-form Barney Stewart opening the scoring after just 15 minutes. Miguel Freckleton equalised just three minutes later from a corner kick, and the Buddies turned things around when Liam Donnelly headed home from a free kick. And that winner came with controversy. Swansea City loanee Filip Lissah looked to have been blocked by Alex Gogic. Falkirk also felt that they should have had a second-half penalty when the ball struck Jayden Richardson’s outstretched hand in the box.
Falkirk suffer against St Mirren
“We got off to a really good start,” McGlynn told the Falkirk Herald. “Barney finishes it really well but we didn’t keep the lead for long enough. It’s a poor goal from our point of view to lose. The first one, other than the fact that we didn’t defend it very well, Scotty (Bain) kind of came for it and didn’t get it. It’s actually equally as bad an error as their one. We were in the ascendancy all the time, Barney almost made it two and if it goes in we regain the lead. We did an awful lot right but didn’t come away with the points we were looking for.
“The second one we’re very aggrieved with as we believe Filip is blocked by Gogic who then goes offside and is interfering with play. It should’ve been a free kick for us. It’s very similar to a goal we were disallowed against Kilmarnock when Ben Broggio is penalised for offside, we didn’t get it.”
Frustrated with the performance of referee Ross Hardie and the VAR team, McGlynn added: “There’s a handball (Richardson) in the second half, similar to Simon Murray’s last week. Being honest, I don’t want penalties for that but the harsh reality is we’ve all got them given against us. There’s no consistency. The lads turned his hand round with the ball. We are aggrieved with some of the decisions and I don’t moan about referees often. We didn’t get the rub of the green there.”
Falkirk’s Premiership rivals Rangers have recently proposed a meeting with all top-flight clubs to discuss the standard of refereeing in Scotland, and the Scottish FA’s head of refereeing Willie Collum has come under significant pressure over the weekend after the latest VAR Review show.
John McGlynn irked by ‘inconsistency’
“Willie is getting kicked all over the place,” McGlynn said. “But he wants transparency and he tells you where they (referees) are going wrong. He’s very much trying to coach them but there are individual errors made since the day the game was invented that probably won’t change. You can coach to the cows come home. But the thing is that we now have got replays to watch and there is so much inconsistency which is frustrating.”
Falkirk now face a two-week break before returning to Premiership action with a trip to face high-flying Motherwell at Fir Park.
“We're going on an international break now, sitting in sixth place,” McGlynn said. “We were very much trying to do everything on our own. We didn't want to wait on other teams dropping points or whatever. We wanted to do this today and it's not gone for us.
“We're not taking it as we've got top six. We need to still get over the line. But nonetheless, regardless, the guys have being brilliant and we'll dust ourselves down to get a nice break right now. Then we come back to face Motherwell and Rangers before the split and then into a Scottish Cup semi-final against Dunfermline. So we've got an awful lot to play for.”