David Gray questioned why his Hibernian side were not awarded a stoppage-time penalty in their 1-1 William Hill Premiership draw at home to St Mirren.
With the match level after Rocky Bushiri had cancelled out Miguel Freckleton’s opener for the visitors, Buddies wing-back Jayden Richardson appeared to block a goalbound shot from Thibault Klidje with a raised arm in the dying moments.
The full-time whistle was blown immediately after a VAR review deemed that a spot-kick should not be awarded, much to the dismay of the home support.
“I would probably ask the question why he (referee Matthew MacDermid) wasn’t asked to go and see the screen because I think his hand is away from his body, it is high,” said Gray.
“Yes, he’s very close but if it doesn’t hit his hand it goes in the goal. I’m not saying it’s deliberate, but I think it at least needs to be explained why it wasn’t a penalty.”
Gray, who also thought Jonah Ayunga was offside for St Mirren’s goal, felt his team should have put the Buddies to the sword in the first half but was in no mood to be overly critical after the gruelling exertions of a six-match European campaign that was ended away to Legia Warsaw on Thursday.
“It’s very hard for me to be critical of the players at all, because of what they’ve given over the last six-eight weeks, whatever it is, including pre-season,” he said.
“It’s been an incredible effort, with many highs and lows along the way, to come so close to getting to the European group stages for the first time, to then have to bring yourself back to go again today.
“We created enough clear-cut chances in the first half for the decisions that happened later on in the game not to be a situation.
“For us to keep improving and get better, when we’re on top in games, we need to be taking our chances – that’s been something that’s maybe let us down recently. But there’s a lot to be proud of, we’re in a really good place and the feelgood factor is certainly there.”
St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson was relieved the late VAR check did not go against his side.
“Of course you always pray that the decision isn’t going to go against you, but I thought it would have been extremely harsh because I thought we were excellent,” he said.
“It was a really good game of football, two teams who played some really good stuff and created chances between us. I thought we had a lot of chances, just our end product, our last pass, our last decision, that’s what let us down to win the game.
“If you don’t take those chances, you’re always liable. The delivery that they have from set plays is fantastic and it’s very, very difficult to defend. I’d have been very aggrieved if we lost the game.”
