KELVIN JACK refused to criticise Gretna midfielder Ryan McGuffie for the way he won the penalty that all-but condemned Dundee to a Scottish Cup semi-final exit.
The Borders side were already a goal to the good when McGuffie skipped past Paul Dixon and went down in the box after running into Bobby Mann.
Referee Calum Murray surprisingly saw it as a penalty and, when he picked himself up, McGuffie sent his spot kick past Jack.
The Dundee keeper was adamant that no offence had taken place, but didn’t lay into the former Newcastle player for conning the official.
“If he was playing for my team obviously I’d be happy,” he said.
“However, it wasn’t a penalty—no chance, absolutely no chance.
“Bobby didn’t stick his foot out, he just stood his ground.”
The Trinidad and Tobago stopper, as is his style, was remarkably relaxed about the affair and chose not to slate the ref either.
“When the referee looks at it again he will realise he was wrong,” he continued.
“It’s possible he just didn’t have the right angle.
“We get to see it four or five times, but they have to make a decision instantly.”
Along with nine other team mates in dark blue, left back Dixon agreed with his keeper.
“It was never a penalty,” he said. “The boy just ran straight into Bobby.
“That was the turning point. It was the killer goal.”
That’s where the agreement between the pair ended, however, as Jack felt Kenny Deuchar’s first- half injury-time goal was the crucial one.
“The first goal was an absolute killer,” maintained the keeper.
“Gretna weren’t doing anything special and we just wanted to make sure we got to half-time at 0-0, but we shot ourselves in the foot.
“The ball came off Stuart McCluskey’s head and Deuchar was in, and to be fair to him, from such a tight angle, he finished it well.
“In that situation you just try to stay on your feet as long as possible and I honestly thought I’d narrowed the angle enough.”
The big goalie defended his decision to come out of his goal to try to shut the striker down in the first place.
“I think I had to close him because he would have come directly towards goal,” he added.
“That’s looking at things in retrospect. When a situation happens a decision has to be made.”
There was nothing the Dens keeper could do about the third goal, which came off the boot of Dens skipper Barry Smith.
“We gifted them another goal,” continued Jack.
“I’m not sure if there was a bobble or what, but unfortunately Barry got a touch and at 3-0 down with six or seven minutes to go it’s really hard to get back from that.”
Just to show he’s not all sweetness and light, Jack had some scathing comments about the team that will now grace the Tennent’s Scottish Cup final on May 13 instead of the Dark Blues.
“I’ve heard about Gretna and how they’ve come up through the divisions, but they showed me nothing today to suggest that they’re a top class team,” he said.
“We made errors and gave them three goals but it was an even game overall.”
Youngster Dixon was one of the better Dundee performers on the day, but was inconsolable at the end.
“I’m absolutely gutted,” said the 19-year-old.
“We got that sucker punch before half time.
“If we’d held out until the interval it might have been a different game.
“We conceded three easy goals and made them look good today.”