Murphy waves away Kelty protests

QUEENS boss Peter Murphy has shrugged off Kelty Heart’s pleas that Jack Stott’s crucial leveller should’ve been disallowed. The midfielder netted on the hour mark at Palmerston and was a game changing moment. However, the Maroon Machine were adamant that Stott had handled the ball and Kurtis Guthrie was offside in the build up to the goal. An irate Kelty assistant Michael Tisder was sent off for his protests but Murphy believes the ref made the right call. He said: “I was right beside the Kelty assistant and I heard him at the referee for the whole game. “His frustrations will have been at the referee in some of the decisions he did make and some of the ones he didn’t make. “I felt the same because the ref made some dubious decisions even before our goals. “He opts to book one of their players when we want to take a quick free-kick. Luckily we scored from the third phase of play from that. “I can understand Tidser’s frustration but I don’t think he’s right about Kurtis being offside and saying Jack handled the ball. Frustrations boil over because it means a lot. “We’ve come out of the right side of it and Kelty hasn't. There were a number of poor decisions for both teams.” But Tisder – who was in charge of the League One basement boys due to player manager Tam O’Ware being hospitalised due to an ankle infection – was convinced it was a glaring mistake by the officials. He said: “The ball clearly hits off Stott’s hand and then their striker is offside. It’s a double-whammy. “Somebody messaged me two minutes after I got sent off saying the exact same thing. I’m right with what I’m saying, whether I’m 30 yards away from the incident or not, it was clear. “It’s key moments like that in games of football which has cost us. “I asked the assistant if he saw the handball and he said yes. I told him to speak to the ref about it to help him out but he didn’t. That’s what I’m angry about as that goal changed the game. “It’s the same mistakes all the time and we are on the wrong end of that again.”