Elgin City’s Ross Draper slates John Beaton for penalty call in Scottish Cup loss at Ayr – revealing linesman disagreed with ref’s decision

By Reporter

February 13 2023, 6:00 am

Ayr's Dipo Akinyemi tangles with Elgin's Ross Draper in the Scottish Cup tie. Image: SNS

Elgin City’s Ross Draper slammed referee John Beaton following their Scottish Cup defeat at Ayr United – labelling his decision to award the home side a crucial extra-time penalty “incredible”.

Elgin’s Draper stormed on to the field at the end of the match to confront Beaton and the other officials after the astonishing decision four minutes into the extra half-hour, and after the Championship side had broken League Two Elgin’s hearts by scoring an equaliser to make it 1-1 in the final minute of normal time.

The visitors would go on to lose 4-1 after extra-time, and a furious Draper – substituted for Jevan Anderson on 108 minutes – raced on to the park to have it out with whistler Beaton, before claiming the referee and his far side assistant were at odds over the penalty ruling.

Draper, who was adjudged to have fouled Ayr striker Dipo Akinyemi, said: “For me it was never a penalty, it was incredible.

“Akinyemi pulled me first, which is fine. It was in the penalty box.

“I’m appealing for a free-kick as he heads the ball wide.

“But I stopped appealing as it was a goal kick and didn’t matter. There were no appeals.

Ayr’s Dipo Akinyemi was awarded a penalty after an incident involving Elgin City’s Ross Draper. Image: SNS

“I’ve been in the game for a long time and never in one moment did I think I was in trouble with a penalty.

“Beaton said to me it was a stonewall penalty, and if that’s a stonewaller, we’ve got big problems.

“The far side assistant Stuart Stevenson said it wasn’t a penalty. And they can’t even come out and talk about it.

“It’s hard to take with the last-minute equaliser and then the penalty. The boys were tired.

Ben Dempsey converts to make it 2-1 to Ayr against Elgin City. Image: SNS

“It is sore to take, but it was a really good performance against a team in the Championship hoping to get to the Premiership.

“It is huge credit to all our club, the players, the staff, the fans, the lot.”

The 34-year-old defender, who has made more than 200 appearances for Inverness and more than 100 for Ross County in a career spanning 14 years, said: “That’s the toughest one to take in my career if I’m honest. I thought the boys were brilliant for 89 minutes.

“Any neutrals know we should have been out of sight. It is a real tough one to take.”