Dundee United should have had a late penalty versus Partick Thistle, according to manager Jim Goodwin.
The Tangerines left Firhill with a point after Louis Moult’s 14th goal of the season cancelled out Brian Graham’s early opener.
United piled on the pressure towards the end but were denied by the goalkeeper and by Thistle players throwing themselves in front of shots.
One of those had the Dundee United players rushing towards the referee claiming for a penalty.
Moult let fly towards goal but there were Thistle bodies in the way.
Goodwin said his players were certain the ball struck a hand while in an unnatural position.
Jim Goodwin: The defender’s arm is above his head
“My players are adamant there’s a handball in there from one of our shots,” said Goodwin.
“The Partick defender’s hand is above his head and my understanding is it’s not a natural position, so it should have been awarded.
“It is a point gained, I suppose. It puts us ahead of Raith Rovers, but I really wanted all three.
“You saw the reaction from my players, sometimes you get one or two that are a little bit dubious.
“But when the whole group make their way to the referee, the players are adamant that it was handball. Unfortunately, at this level we don’t have VAR to look back on.
“It’s disappointing it hasn’t gone in our favour, but I’ve got to give the group a lot of credit.”
Goodwin was disappointed to again concede from a corner but praised his players for their second-half reaction.
Though United came up just short of taking full advantage of title rivals Raith Rovers’ slip-up the night before.
“You talk about character and having strong guys in the dressing room, we’ve certainly got that,” added Goodwin.
“We came here to try and get maximum points, we always do have that positive mindset prior to games.
“We knew how difficult it was going to be but we couldn’t started the game in any worse a fashion.
‘A poor goal to concede’
“It was a poor goal to concede from our point of view. The long ball initially for the keeper, as a back four we’re far too deep.
“Prior to the Airdrie games, we’d only conceded one or two. That’s an area we need to address.
“We knew physically we were going to be outnumbered today. We’re asking the likes of Craig Sibbald to pick up a guy who is eight or nine inches taller than him.
“I thought we did a lot better in the second half, we pinned Partick back for large periods and deservedly got the equaliser.
“We possibly could have gone on and won it in the end, we had two or three goalmouth scrambles.
“We go on to Tuesday now, which is another extremely difficult physical challenge against a Morton team that have got good experience and make no bones about getting the ball forward and getting it in your box.”
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