BY Jack Crawford
RENFREW co-manager Colin Clark was left raging after his side lost 2-1 to Beith in the West of Scotland Cup due to a refereeing decision that he described as a ‘shocker’.
Referee Matthew MacDermid’s decision to award Beith a late penalty was the difference between the sides as both teams finished with 10 men.
Ryan Docherty opened the scoring for the visitors after seven minutes, but the hosts got back into the game in the second-half thanks to Bob Campbell’s free-kick.
READ MORE: Kearney left frustrated by late penalty call against Dundee
Beith were handed a spot-kick with 10 minutes left as they left Renfrew with a win for the second time in two weeks.
And Clark said: “We were very unfortunate. A big refereeing decision went against us. It was a shocker. The boy has dived.
“He’s gave the penalty and the linesman is telling him it’s not, but he’s stuck with his decision, then he sends off one of our boys for talking to him.
“I asked if the boy was cheeky or abusive to him but the ref just said he was talking too much.”
It was the second meeting in a week between Frew and Beith
Despite the loss, Clark has taken confidence from his side’s displays against the champions as they plod on with their challenging fixture list.
Clark continued: “We had chances to score at 1-1 but didn’t take them then the penalty kills us. We were on the front foot for much of the game.
“I don’t want to sit and talk about the referee too much and take credit away from my players because they were excellent and deserved more.
READ MORE: Clark insists Renfrew deserve credit after Beith display
“What we will take away from the game, though, is how good we were as whilst the result wasn’t positive, the performance certainly was.
“We will take confidence from the Beith games despite not winning.”
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