IRVINE Meadow boss Kevin Deeney says "sub-standard" officiating cost his side as they lost out to league leaders Beith on Friday night.

Medda were beaten 2-1 by Chris Strain's title chasers after Callum Graham's early penalty was cancelled out by a Carlo Monti free-kick - before Paul Frize latched onto a rebound to score the game's winning goal.

All the goals came in the first half - but it was a second-half controversy that particularly irked Deeney after the game, when the ball appeared to be clearly headed on to the outstretched arm of a Beith defender.

Deeney told the Times: “I thought it was a penalty to be honest. It was clear to everybody apart from the linesman on that side.

"He said it came off his head. He just wasn’t paying attention.

“It’s dead frustrating, because it’s just made up. If he turned round and said he just didn’t see it, that would be better, but he’s just made things up.

“It’s dead annoying when you put in so much effort through the week to prepare for the game.”

The 'non-handball' decision, though, wasn't the only one that Deeney disagreed with during the course of a game in which Medda went toe-to-toe with the title favourites for long spells.

The Medda boss added: “It was the same for the second goal as well - [Josh] Fowler just barges Martin Findlay.

“I go to the ref ‘how can you miss that?’, because he’s only 10 yards away, and he told me that he and the two linemen seen it and they thought it was a foul on Josh Fowler.

“I thought ‘you’re genuinely just making it up now’. It's just nonsense.

“It’s sub-standard, there’s no other way of saying it, it’s just a sub-standard performance.

“It’s not even close to being good, and it’s just continuous throughout the game.”

Deeney added that Medda were in a "fortunate position" that the decisions made on Friday night "probably won't cost" his team in terms of how they finish off the season - but says he wants to see the standard of officiating improve in future.

"You can’t legislate for decisions like that going against you," he said.

“I like to hope that they’ll watch the footage again, and they get them next time, rather than just lying to me.

“Just say ‘right, I’ve made a mistake’ and we’ll move on with it. It just gets you in bother when they’re not honest with you.

“They won’t get better either if they don’t look at it objectively - they won’t improve themselves.”

Deeney said he wants to see match officials learn from mistakes the same way as players and coaches do.

"We’ve got to do better after the decisions are made," he said 

"I’m in there giving my players a hard time, addressing where we fail, but you’re like ‘are they addressing the lead up to it?’.

“I’m pulling players at half time but nobody’s pulling them. These guys are getting away with this.

“They just roll up next week and make the same mistakes again.

"If a player makes a mistake they’re not in the team anymore – that’s just the way it works.”

Full highlights of the game can be watched here.