ARDEER Thistle boss Sean Kenney did not hold back as he blasted the refereeing call which he says cost his side their game on Saturday.

Thistle succumbed to a 4-1 defeat at home to St Anthony’s in testing conditions in Stevenston.

Although the scoreline may not suggest it, the match was finely poised until the 74th minute, when all chaos broke loose.

At this time, Ardeer trailed 2-1 after Callum Wardrope had got his side back into the game on the half hour mark after St Anthony’s took an early 2-0 lead.

However, on the above mentioned 74th minute, Wardrope made a challenge in his own box, which resulted in the awarding of a penalty - which was subsequently scored.

It was a decision which Ardeer boss Kenney was far from pleased with when he spoke to the club’s own media team after the match.

He said: “It’s never a penalty in a million years, it’s a terrible decision, it’s cost us the game.

“The ref’s had a great view, it was a great tackle, Callum’s done excellent to get back in.

“They’ve not claimed for it, the only person that thought it was a penalty was the referee and it’s a really sore one, because that’s what’s done us today – we’ve been done by a very, very poor decision.”

And Ardeer not only fell further behind at this point, prior to the penalty being taken they were reduced to nine men after both Callum Wardrope and Scott Hindmarsh were sent off for their protests.

After it was converted, coach James Bennet was also dismissed, and another member of the backroom team, Andrew Argo, was booked.

St Anthony’s then added their fourth and final goal with five minutes left to play.

Amongst the chaos, Kenney was pleased with how his side performed, which has given him confidence heading into the relegation battle.

He commented: “Again, people are writing us off, there’s a lot of things going on, we’re fighting every minute of the day for this, the boys are grafting not just here but at training, away from training.

“Today we showed that we’re all in this together. I thought we were brilliant, the way that the boys played – a lot of heart, a lot of fight, a bit of quality. I couldn’t really have asked for much more.”