Stuart Kettlewell bemoans refereeing decisions after Ross County slip to defeat

Posted Wednesday, May 09, 2018 by PA

Ross County co-manager Stuart Kettlewell was left questioning the officials after he felt his side were denied a penalty in the 1-0 defeat to Dundee.

Simon Murray scored the only goal of the game but results elsewhere mean the Staggies are still alive in the Ladbrokes Premiership relegation battle.

Although they can no longer escape the bottom two, County go into the final game of the season knowing a win over St Johnstone and a Partick Thistle defeat would see them into the relegation play-off, while Dundee are now safe.

It was a scrappy game, but County missed several chances to draw level and could have had a late penalty but referee Andrew Dallas booked Michael Gardyne for diving after a coming together with Faissal El Bakhtaoui – a decision which left Kettlewell cursing his side’s luck.

When asked if they should have had a late spot-kick, Kettlewell said: “Yes, I’ve seen it again and my question is, who is accountable for it?

“When a team goes down, people lose their jobs.

“We would love to know who is accountable because we just get fobbed off all the time.

“I hate to keep making it as an excuse and trying to fob people off and saying that’s why we lost the game – I’m not saying that – but it was a huge moment in the game and one we didn’t get.”

He added: “I know there is human error in football but at the end of the day these decisions are massive and there are aspects of our play we can do better (too).

“It was a poor goal to lose and there were opportunities we didn’t take, so that’s the bit we take responsibility for.

“But if you get a penalty at that stage of the game who knows what happens, you have an opportunity to get level and build momentum to win the game.”

Murray’s third goal since joining Dundee on loan in January was enough for the visitors to claim three points and a third win since the split.

It guarantees their top-flight status for next season but it could have been a different story, with Davis Keillor-Dunn, David Ngog and Liam Fontaine all guilty of missing good chances.

However, Dundee were worth their win and manager Neil McCann was pleased with how his side had secured their own safety rather than rely on results elsewhere.

“I charged the boys with the task of getting five wins from the five games,” he said. “We’ve got three from four and we will look to go to Partick and make it four.

“We want to do it off our own backs and win the game.”

On the penalty incident, he added: “I have to trust the referee.”