Buddies boss angered by offside call

St Mirren boss Oran Kearney bemoaned a “black and white” offside decision that cost his side as they slumped to a fourth successive Ladbrokes Premiership defeat.

A 2-1 loss against Kilmarnock leaves the Buddies sitting second bottom after taking just four points from their first nine matches and still looking for a first victory under their new boss.

Adam Hammill’s first goal for the club had the Paisley side ahead but a second-half fightback and goals from Alan Power and Aaron Tshibola left Kearney staring at another defeat – his fourth in five matches since taking the helm.

“We’ve been disappointed with our first-half performances in the main,” the Northern Irishman explained. “Today is probably the opposite.

“We got that desired response and hit the levels of what I would expect. You know that Killie are going to come in the second half and we spoke about that at half-time.

“I can’t comment on their goal from where I was standing. But it’s one hell of a call because the header comes at the back post and there’s a huge amount of traffic in the way.

“I can comment on the Simeon (Jackson) one. He’s onside by about two yards. We’ve got our own footage at the club and the left-back Taylor is playing him onside. He’s about a yard or two onside.

“That’s the momentum swing. That would have given us another shot of adrenaline with 15 minutes to go and those are the ones that are hard to take.

“I think it’s a black and white one. It’s a shot from 18 yards. That’s the job that should be done and sadly today it wasn’t.

“The two decisions are highly questionable. One is wrong and there’s no doubt about it.”

Kilmarnock boss Steve Clarke praised his side as they moved up to third in the table.

They had to come from behind to win for the fourth successive match, though, and Clarke said: “It’s a habit that we need to work on.

“I thought St Mirren were really good in the first half, they got about us from the start of the game and disrupted our rhythm.

“We had a little chat at half-time, put one or two things right and second half I think you saw the true Kilmarnock team.”