Stephen Kenny Post Livingston

"It would be very uncharacteristic of me to criticise referees but I think the two major decisions were absolutely wrong.

The outcome of the Sunday afternoon fixture at Almondvale centred around two contentious decisions by Referee Chris Boyle.  Stephen Kenny commented at Livingston:-

"It would be very uncharacteristic of me to criticise referees but I think the two major decisions were absolutely wrong.  Sol Bamba was clearly in the box and is taken out of it.  We were given a free kick outside the box, he was well in the box.  The difference of getting a penalty there and going one up is massive.

"The second one when he is sent off, it was a wrong decision as well.  Their forward (Steven Craig) and collided with Bamba. I no way is it a foul of any description. The ball was running away from him, it definitely wasn't a foul so we were down to ten men at that stage and having conceded a penalty. That was disappointing.  These were crucial decisions for us today.

"I was relieved to get a point considering you are one nil down, a few minutes to go and you only have ten men. I was relieved to get a draw.

"It wasn't a great match, midfield was congested, we created quite a few chances but we didn't take our opportunities today. Again I can't believe the first penalty wasn't given and then I can't believe  Bamba sent off for that and the penalty given. It was a clear cut decision. I think the referee hesitated because he was letting play develop, he thought it was a goal scoring opportunity.  I am not criticising him personally I am just saying that the decisions had a massive effect on the game.

"To get a penalty there and go one up, it is a different game completely. With ten men we had to chase it.  We did well, we had the better chances on the day without playing as well as we can without a shadow of a doubt.

"Sean Murdoch did really well in goals; he commanded his box and showed good character after the other day, I was pleased with that."

Sean's days in goals may well be limited since the Manager explained his decision to bring Paul Gallagher to East End Park:-

"We had the situation where we had Neil inglis, our goalkeeping coach on the bench today.  The other goalkeeper we have, Greg Paterson has a broken finger and will be out for a while because he needs an operation on it. Roddy McKenzie with his thigh injury you just never know with his kicking, just how long he will be out with that. The injury is bad enough but could be a recurring injury. It is a very hard one to get right for a goalkeeper.  We needed to make sure that we signed a goalkeeper because we only had one.

"Paul was available on loan and it was a good opportunity to get him.  We didn't have international clearance to play him today but I just wanted to make sure that we had two goalkeepers.  If Sean was to get injured in training or sick or anything we would have no gopalkeepers.  You think with three that you have enough but Paul will be a good signing. We are lucky to get someone as experienced as that."

Injuries are still being collected with news that Tam McManus had for an x-ray after his substitution midway through the first half:-

"It looks like it could be a broken rib after the way he went down on the ground.  We are waiting to hear about that."

Hopes are high that Jim McIntyre might return but the Manager said the player who injured himself doing his own close season training is still a couple of weeks away from being able to join his team mates in training.

"He got a calf tear, he had a scan a few days ago and it is nearly healed. He will need a couple of weeks training when he returns. He was a major part in the functioning of our team last year and anyway we shouldn't be using that as a complaint since we have a lot of good players.

"Even though we didn't play that well we hsad the better chances and probably deserved to win the game.  We can do a lot better but with ten men and a goal down we did well.  It could be significant for us getting that goal."

The Manager added that Sol Bamba would be catching a flight to Paris on Sunday night so that he could connect to a flight to join up with his Ivory Coast Olympic team for a qualifying match on Wednesday.