Rutherglen Glencairn co-boss Joe Pryce says blunder ref Conor Greenan played a role in their defeat to Kilwinning on Saturday, but so did failing to deal with a long throw-in tactic.Jack MacCalman launched several throw-ins into the Glencairn box, causing panic and leading to the first and third of Jack McMahon’s hat-trick.But the middle goal came when Glencairn were halted due to a head knock suffered by a Kilsyth player, referee Greenan wrongly handed the ball to Rangers, who launched it forward for Bryan Boylan, whose shot was tipped into a post by Kieran McDougall, with McMahon sweeping home the rebound.Pryce said: “The referee had stopped the game – quite rightly – for a head-knock.

We had possession, he stopped the game, but while our players were waiting on the referee giving us the ball back, as he should have done, he dropped it at the feet of the Kilwinning player, who just smashes the ball over the top of us.“We’re not ready, we’re not set, everybody is amazed at the decision, and the Kilwinning player couldn’t believe his luck.

They went through, hit the shot off the post and scored the rebound.“I spoke to the referee at half-time who acknowledged that he had made a mistake and apologised, so fair play, because not many referees do, but we were punished severely for it.”McMahon netted his first goal in three minutes, which was cancelled out by Jack McIlveen in 32 minutes.Kilsyth were handed the lead by the referee’s error three minutes later, and McMahon netted his third in 51 minutes.Ryan McManus pulled a goal back in the last minute with a terrific hooked shot over the keeper from 20 yards, and visiting shot-stopper Dylan Brown produced saves from McIlveen and Sean McGuire in stoppage time to deny Glens a

Rutherglen Glencairn 2 Kilwinning Rangers 3: Blunder from ref costs Glens in defeat

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