St Johnstone striker Makenzie Kirk admitted he was “devastated” that a Hampden Park wonder goal was disallowed.
The Perth forward came on as a half-time substitute, with Simo Valakari’s side left with only pride to play for in their Scottish Cup semi-final after Celtic had raced to a four-goal lead at the interval.
A stunning Kirk 25-yarder gave 3,000 Saints fans in the national stadium something to cheer about.
However, after VAR official Steven McLean intervened, referee Calum Scott chalked it off for a Daniels Balodis push in the back of Adam Idah in the build-up.
Saints went on to lose 5-0 and Kirk was denied a goal that would have given Graham Carey’s at Livingston a run for its money when the tournament’s best is decided.
“I knew as soon as it left my foot it was going into the back of the net,” said the Northern Ireland under-21 international.
“The adrenaline gets the better of you when you score one like that from distance.
“It was a great feeling at the time but once the ref is taking ages to confirm it, you start to get an idea.
“I could see his mind starting to change so you get the feeling it’s not going to go your way.
“Personally, I think it’s soft.
“Idah’s touch means he’s never getting control of it.
“I don’t think it’s a foul but the ref decided it was, so there’s nothing you can do.
“It’s devastating personally because it was a good goal in a big game, but you just have to move on.”
Relegation battle
It’s all about staying in the Premiership for Saints now, with the post-split phase of the season beginning at Motherwell on Saturday.
“We have to focus on the next five games now,” said Kirk.
“We have massive matches coming up and everything has to go into them now.
“As a group, we know what our sole purpose is now and that’s to stay up.
“We will recover now, we’ll come back in and get ready for Motherwell on Saturday.”
Reflecting on the defeat to Celtic, Kirk said: “It’s a big occasion and the boys did really well for the first half-hour.
“We maybe switch off and that’s what happens when you play Celtic, they can punish you in the blink of an eye.
“Suddenly it’s one, two then we’re going in at half-time 4-0 down.
“After that, you have to stay disciplined and try to do the best you can.
“The gaffer told us to play with pride, stay disciplined, be compact and play as a team.
“We had to go out and keep the score to a minimum.
“I felt we came out of the second half with something because we were more disciplined.
“The only option was to play with pride and keep them as low as we could in the second half.”
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