Kilmarnock manager Stuart Kettlewell called for clarity on the handball rule after two key decisions went against his side in Sunday’s 2-1 William Hill Premiership defeat to Aberdeen.
When leading 1-0 after Tyreece John-Jules’ opener, his men were denied a penalty due to a VAR intervention which saw referee Ross Hardie overturn his initial decision after pointing to the spot.
Killie then conceded a decisive spot-kick in the 85th minute after Brad Lyons were harshly penalised for the ball striking his arm and Jesper Karlsson converted to give the home team victory.
Kettlewell, who was serving a one-match touchline ban following his red card in last week’s defeat to Rangers, said: “I think when the referee points to the penalty spot and no Aberdeen player protests, then you are kind of thinking that this is clear-cut but they have found some reason not to award what the referee has clearly seen from his line of vision.
“I’ve been a long time in this game as a player, a coach and a manager and I have absolutely no idea about it anymore in terms of what the guys are looking for.
“I don’t have an understanding of what the handball rule is.
“I don’t think any of the supporters do either and we need to be a bit fairer to the people around about football clubs, especially the people that pay their hard-earned cash.
“They must be able to come and understand what the rules are, but none of us do.”
Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin praised his players for their comeback after a much-improved second-half showing.
The Dons were outplayed in the first period and could have trailed by more than one goal at the interval.
But Kenan Bilalovic’s equaliser and Karlsson’s late penalty saw the home team claim the points and continue their upturn in form.
Thelin said: “Kilmarnock started the game really well but we talked more about ourselves at half-time, how we were acting, the body language.
“The quality and the connections were really poor and also (goalkeeper) Dimitar (Mitov) kept us in the game because Kilmarnock had a big chance to make it 2-0 at half-time.
“We were really in a bad situation but we decided not to change too much at half-time and instead give the players a chance to show that they can do better.
“Also (Graeme) Shinnie came on with positive energy and then Kenan and Marko Lazetic later as well.
“We were pushing really hard to win the game in the second half, creating very good chances and we can’t forget about their goalkeeper making some good saves.
“I’m happy that we won in the end because it was a big turnaround from the first half to the second half.”
