Jim Goodwin unimpressed with referee as Kilmarnock settle for draw

Jim Goodwin fumed at Matthew MacDermid’s hugely controversial decision to award Kilmarnock a penalty after Dundee United’s 1-1 draw at Rugby Park.

Both struggling sides shared the spoils after Craig Sibbald levelled for United after the hosts opened the scoring on 34 minutes from the spot.

Ref MacDermid judged that Krisztian Keresztes barged into the back of Marley Watkins, but contact was extremely minimal.

Dave Richards saved Bruce Anderson’s initial effort but the Kilmarnock striker slammed home the equaliser and Goodwin wasn’t pleased, at all, with the decision.

The United boss said: “The big talking point is the penalty kick that gets awarded to Kilmarnock.  I can’t, for the life of me, having watched it back now half a dozen times after the game, believe that we’ve been done with a decision like that.

“I don’t understand how the referee is not called to the monitor to reassess the decision. And I think if he sees it again, I would be confident that he would have overturned it and not given the penalty.

“Obviously we missed one ourselves early on, but the players, I thought, showed exactly the reaction we were hoping for in the second half. Good, positive reaction, good character, much better in the second half, played the majority of the game in the Kilmarnock half and I was pleased in the end to get that all-important goal.”

Asked if referee MacDermid had explained his call, Goodwin replied: “I spoke to the referee at half-time and just asked what the reason was for the decision. He felt there was a clear push in the back. But I’m not being funny. If you’re going to be given penalty kicks for that type of contact, then we’re going to see two or three penalties a game.

“If it had been given in the middle of the pitch, I’d have been really disappointed. There’s a slight coming together, but you’re going to expect that. I just think it’s a really, really poor, poor decision.”

Kilmarnock entered the fixture on the back of sixth consecutive defeats in the Scottish Premiership but Stuart Kettlewell wasn’t content with gaining just one point.

“We didn’t come here for a point today,” insisted Kettlewell. “We’ve come to obviously win the three points but I’ve said to the players that although we are disappointed, both sides wanted to win the game.

“We have to break the cycle that we got a point. Dundee United were always going to show a reaction to last week against Falkirk. So from that side, I think we’ll sit in the cold light of day and say fine, but we know we can do more.”