Stuart Kettlewell: Calls did not go Ross County way against Livingston
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MANAGER Stuart Kettlewell felt all the decisions went against Ross County as they were knocked out of the Scottish League Cup after a 2-0 defeat at Livingston.
The Staggies fell behind after four minutes when Craig Sibbald’s goal, which was originally flagged offside by the linesman, was allowed by referee Steven Maclean to the fury of Ross County’s players.
But Kettlewell felt the more contentious decision was why Jon Guthrie was only given a yellow card, and not sent off after fouling Billy McKay, when he was one on one with the goalkeeper Max Stryjek.
Speaking about the decision, he felt that Guthrie deserved more than receiving a yellow card, and struggled to understand the reason that was given.
“The explanation was he wasn’t in control of the ball. We could all see he was clean through on goal, and that amazes me as it was a big decision at the time.
“The explanation came from the four officials who were united on that one.”
Speaking about the decision to allow Craig Sibbald’s goal, Kettlewell said it was not often a linesman‘s decision was overruled.
“I’ve had an explanation it was felt the ball came off our player,” he said.
“What I did see was the linesman with his flag up and without VAR, what we would usually go on is what the linesman has seen.”
Speaking about the game overall and going out of the competition, Kettlewell said: “It was frustrating as I didn’t think a single decision fell our way.
“I’m against making that as an excuse. But when you see the type of game that we witnessed, I didn’t feel we got a fair share of that simply because some of these decisions weren’t going our way.”
Ross County went 2-0 down after 24 minutes when Callum Morris’s clearance in the box ricocheted off Scott Robinson. The ball fell kindly to Alan Forrest, who had a simple header in the six-yard box to double their lead and set up a semi-final against St Mirren.
