‘They were getting every decision’ - Jonah Ayunga questions officials as St Mirren striker makes Rangers ‘escape’ claim

St Mirren striker Jonah Ayunga is adamant Rangers were fortunate to leave the SMiSA Stadium with a point as he pointed to some questionable refereeing decisions in the latter stages of an eventful contest.

The powerful forward thought he was on course to help the Buddies to a second victory against the Old Firm in Paisley this season, having scored in their impressive 2-0 win against Celtic back in September.

The 25-year-old scored the opener against Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side early in the second half of Saturday’s Premiership clash before the Ibrox club netted through James Tavernier’s spot-kick late on to rescue a 1-1 draw.

A frustrated Ayunga believes key decisions made by whistler Kevin Clancy were consistently going against his side, claiming the penalty awarded to the visitors for a challenge on Ryan Kent should NOT have been given due to a foul moments beforehand.

He reckons Saints task of keeping Rangers out and claiming another huge win on home soil wasn’t helped by Clancy and the match officials favouring the opposition.

Speaking to Renfrewshire Live Sport, Ayunga said: “I’m happy with a point but we feel it could be more if we had just held on. It’s still a good result in the end.

“It didn’t feel like 11 vs 11 after 60 minutes. They were getting every decision, every 50-50. That contributes to you feeling under pressure and there’s only so long you can keep repelling attacks without getting anything (from the referee).

“It feels like it was coming towards the end, but some of the decisions didn’t help. Before the penalty there’s a foul on Mark O’Hara in their half that doesn’t get given and you think VAR will check that whole phase. I don’t think they did, so it’s frustrating.

“It’s the same feeling we have on the season as a whole. We will take it, but we definitely know we could have done more and deserve more throughout the season. We have got a point but we think it could have been three and we could have been higher in the table. We had better chances than them and deserved to win.”