Rutherglen Glencairn co-boss Joe Pryce says blunder ref Conor Greenan played a role in their defeat to Kilwinning on Saturday, but so did failing to deal with a long throw-in tactic.

Jack MacCalman launched several throw-ins into the Glencairn box, causing panic and leading to the first and third of Jack McMahon’s hat-trick.

But the middle goal came when Glencairn were halted due to a head knock suffered by a Kilsyth player, referee Greenan wrongly handed the ball to Rangers, who launched it forward for Bryan Boylan, whose shot was tipped into a post by Kieran McDougall, with McMahon sweeping home the rebound.

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Pryce said: “The referee had stopped the game – quite rightly – for a head-knock. We had possession, he stopped the game, but while our players were waiting on the referee giving us the ball back, as he should have done, he dropped it at the feet of the Kilwinning player, who just smashes the ball over the top of us.

“We’re not ready, we’re not set, everybody is amazed at the decision, and the Kilwinning player couldn’t believe his luck. They went through, hit the shot off the post and scored the rebound.

“I spoke to the referee at half-time who acknowledged that he had made a mistake and apologised, so fair play, because not many referees do, but we were punished severely for it.”

McMahon netted his first goal in three minutes, which was cancelled out by Jack McIlveen in 32 minutes.

Kilsyth were handed the lead by the referee’s error three minutes later, and McMahon netted his third in 51 minutes.

Ryan McManus pulled a goal back in the last minute with a terrific hooked shot over the keeper from 20 yards, and visiting shot-stopper Dylan Brown produced saves from McIlveen and Sean McGuire in stoppage time to deny Glens a point.

Pryce said: “Kilwinning came with a set tactic, which we had warned the players about all week in training.

“The minute they got the ball in our half and it went out for a throw-in, they had their lad at the back, who can throw the ball 50 yards, and they launched it right into the centre of our goals.

“We had warned the players to avoid giving away throw-ins, within the first three minutes Kilwinning had four in our half, and every single one came right into the box.

“They scored from the fourth one, and that theme continued all throughout the game.

“We’ve got to be able to stand up to that, to defend it properly. There are different tactics and challenges, and you have to rise to that and deal with it.

“In football you have to use every advantage you have, and it’s no problem – if the opposition can’t deal with it, tough on them.

“On Saturday we struggled to deal with that long throw-in, they scored two goal from it.

“In terms of our play, there was some good stuff in it, Jack McIlveen and Ryan McManus scored two absolutely outstanding goals.

“There was a lot of huffing and puffing, we didn’t really make their goalkeeper work enough, but in the last minute he made an outstanding save, otherwise we would have got a point out of it.”