Dunfermline boss Jim Jefferies may have been in the game for many a year now, but some decisions by match officials can still leave him baffled.
The manager asked assistant Gerry McCabe to query one or two points at a referees’ meeting on Sunday, following his side’s 2-2 draw with Morton at East End Park, notably an offside decision that left him and his players incensed when the score remained 0-0.
Midfielder Stephen Husband was flagged offside after a free-flowing Pars move, even though the ball ricocheted off a Morton defender into his path.
Indeed, the home side were so frustrated that both Jefferies and striker Ryan Wallace were given a talking to by referee Craig Charleston, with Wallace eventually talking himself into a yellow card.
”I thought that was a bit harsh to book Ryan,” Jefferies said. ”After the game the referee said it was a new rule, but nobody’s told us about it.
”What you are actually saying is, if a boy is in an offside position and it comes off a defender then he’s offside, but that’s just like saying I’ve got a centre half who turns around and says I’ll give it back to the goalkeeper, but he turns around and gives it straight to an attacker.
”How’s that not offside? It’s the same thing.
”It ricocheted back into play and it’s just their bad luck. It’s one of these things you call a bad break and we might have made something of it.
”If it fell to our player it would have been a lucky break, but to end up getting a player booked, it’s ridiculous.”
The Pars also had a goal chalked off when they were 1-0 down, when Ryan Thomson’s header found its way past the Morton defence and into the net.
However, the referee ruled that Pars sub Andy Kirk had impeded visiting keeper Derek Gaston – and Morton made matters worse by racing up the other end to double their lead.
”You see it a thousand times,” Jefferies added.
”When the ball’s knocked down there I’m looking for my striker to be in front of the keeper, to try and turn the boy and hook it away, but the referee said he was too close to him.
”The boys were a bit aggrieved with it and Morton went up the park to make it 2-0, so we felt a wee bit of injustice there.”
Jefferies wasn’t the only one puzzled by decisions on Saturday, though, as his opposite number Allan Moore was left raging at the decision to give the corner that led to the handball that gave the Pars a lifeline.
Despite some strange calls, Jefferies believed a 2-2 draw was probably a fair result in the end.
”It was a very hard-fought match and they were well organised and strong at the back.
”They made it very difficult for us,” he added.