Michael McIndoe bemused by penalty calls as Edinburgh City suffer late heartache
Edinburgh City boss Michael McIndoe was left fuming after his side conceded two late penalties in the 3-2 defeat to league leaders Clyde.
The Citizens led 2-1 with seven minutes remaining at New Douglas Park only for referee Alastair Grieve to point to the spot twice in the 87th and 94th minutes. Scott Williamson duly converted both to complete his hat-trick and hand the Bully Wee all three points.
Goals from Murray Aiken and Lennon Walker had put the visitors in the driving seat and McIndoe was less impressed with the match official's late interventions.
"I'm very disappointed," he said. "We lose two penalties, both of them questionable at best. We've been given two penalties against us in the last four minutes of that game and we were 2-1 up with eight minutes to go. It's really poor. To be honest, I don't think both teams were great. Overall, it was a battle, the game was very even. At no point in that game did we deserve a loss though, even a draw would have been disappointing.
"There were five or six moments with 20 minutes to go when we made some very bad decisions. But we're talking about young players here. That comes with the fact that a lot of these guys have not played 30 or 40 professional games, so we can't be too hard on them. We've got to coach and educate them."
City have dropped to the foot of League Two once more following Dumbarton's surprise home victory over Elgin City.
Elsewhere, Spartans moved into the promotion play-off berths with a 2-0 victory over struggling Stirling Albion.
Mark Stowe netted for Dougie Samuel's men in the first half before Bradley Whyte made sure of the points at Forthbank with a second on 88 minutes.
Meanwhile, Bonnyrigg Rose crashed out of the South Challenge Cup after a 5-3 defeat to Whitletts Victoria on penalties.
The tie was all square at 1-1 at New Voluntary Park Josh Laing equalising for the Lowland League East outfit.
Neil Martyniuk saw his penalty saved as the hosts converted all five from 12 yards.
Manager Jonny Stewart said: "I was disappointed. We're not doing enough at the moment to break teams down. When it goes to penalties it's a lottery, and unfortunately Neil missed his."