Mixed emotions for boss McKenzie as 10-man Lanark United battle to claim draw

Inside the opening seven minutes at Moor Park on Saturday, Haddow received his marching orders after having a straight red card shown as he was judged to be the furthest defender back when he committed a foul in Lanark’s West of Scotland League Conference C clash with Glasgow Perthshire.

“It was a ball through the middle and it was a kind of foot race,” Yowes gaffer McKenzie told the Carluke and Lanark Gazette.

“It was shoulder to shoulder and we felt we had a covering defender.

“We felt as if Cammy Lawson was getting across to cover, but as soon as their player went to ground, the referee went straight into his pocket.

“It was almost as if he couldn’t wait to get the red card out.

“That was a big setback straight away in the game, which was disappointing, but the boys reacted brilliantly – really, really well.”

United belied being a man down by creating the bulk of the chances from then on and deservedly took the lead on 70 minutes through Connor McCardle when he headed in off the underside of the bar following an Andrew Gilchrist corner.

But Perthshire – who had a lot of possession without creating much – nicked a point when Steven Logan equalised with a back-post header just six minutes later.

Despite his chagrin at Haddow’s dismissal, McKenzie stressed that he “could probably see why the referee gave it”.

The Lanark boss added: “I asked him for an explanation at half-time and he gave me an explanation.

“He felt that Cammy wasn’t close enough to be considered to be a covering defender, so we just had to get on with it.

“At the end of the day, we kind of went 4-4-1 and just matched up.

“To play with 10 men for 80-odd minutes, they were absolutely brilliant.

“They worked really hard, got themselves in the lead and we had two or three other chances where we probably could have extended the lead.

“The only one wee minute in the game when we dropped our guard and lost our concentration we ended up losing the goal from, but the reaction after that was great because I think we went and hit the post, hit the bar and had one cleared off the line, all within the last five minutes.

“I was disappointed for them because I felt they had put so much into the game.

“They showed me another side on Saturday that I was absolutely over the moon with – that they could fight, could be regimented, go into a disciplined shape when we needed to – and they worked extremely hard.

“I was gutted for them that they didn’t manage to get all three points, but it was a good point considering we played so long with only 10 men.”