FUMING Greenock Juniors boss Gary Fleming couldn't hide how proud he was of his players despite being left adamant that a huge refereeing call cost his side versus Kilsyth Athletic.
Nock looked as if they were going to hold on for what could've been a huge point despite being forced to play with ten men for well over an hour against their promotion rivals in North Lanarkshire, before Ross Canavan thought he'd capitalised on a goalkeeping error to put his side in front with five minutes of normal time remaining.
Fleming wasn't shy in venting his frustrations (Image: alex craig)
But whistler Barry Cook had other ideas, despite visibly not looking at the incident, that saw the goalkeeper drop the ball after trying to challenge the Nock man for the ball.
To the bemusement of the Fleming, he saw his front man's goal chopped off in a devastating blow and the Ravenscraig boss is still baffled as to why the call went against his players.
He told the Tele: "I just want it made clear how proud I was with the players on Saturday, they gave absolutely everything and walked away with nothing.
"We were denied a perfectly good goal which the referee initially gave then disallowed.
"Upon reviewing the video footage the referee hasn’t even witnessed the incident and has turned his back on the goalkeeper dropping it and our player prodding it home meaning he’s guessed at what’s happened to disallow the goal.
Should this goal have stood ?
With the score at 1-1 on 80 mins. @GREENOCKJFC took the lead with 10 men only for the Referee to call OFFSIDE after giving the goal originally, and complaints from @KilsythAth.
The Referee wasn't looking at that phase of play ?… pic.twitter.com/3w385PtZdC
— Saltire Digital Media ????⚽️ (@SaltireDM) March 25, 2025
"This was a massive moment in the game as we played with 10 men for almost 60 minutes and that goal made it 2-1 with five minutes to play and I genuinely think we would have seen the game out.
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Fleming concedes just how huge a blow it was to lose out on the decision, with Bailey Hanlon's side going on to win 3-1 and move within a point of Nock at the business end of the season.
But he backed his side to overcome their disappointments and achieve the goal that they've got so close to grasping.
He added: "That win would have put seven points between us and Kilsyth with a game in hand, now the gaps closed to just one point between us.
"There’s been a social media discussion on the goal whereby a former category one referee commented on the footage to say it was a goal which makes it harder to take.
"We have eight games to achieve promotion and from what I seen from my players and the shift they put in on Saturday, we’ve got more than enough across our squad to accomplish that but we must start this run of 8 games with three points on Saturday away to Glasgow Utd.
