Malky Mackay left lamenting 'strange' offside decision that he felt denied Ross County all three points at Dundee in the Scottish Premiership
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Malky Mackay labelled the decision to disallow Ross County's goal against Dundee as "strange".
The Staggies had to settle for a point at Dens Park despite putting the ball in the net through James Brown.
Former Blackburn Rovers wing-back Brown had capitalised on Trevor Carson's spill from Yan Dhanda's cross – but the offside flag was raised against Jordan White, who had been the ball's intended recipient.
Referee Colin Steven was then encouraged by VAR Andrew Dallas to go over to the monitor to confirm that White was interfering with play, but unfortunately for County he stuck with the on-field decision.
"I've had a look at it again, and I spoke to the referees and it appears VAR wanted Colin to see if he felt it was subjective enough that Jordan was interfering with play," Mackay explained after full time.
"I see Jordan and Joe Shaughnessy coming across, but they're a fair distance away from the goalkeeper, so I haven't seen many of those given in the last six months.
"Their goalkeeper obviously mishandles it and it goes in the net. The assistant did the right thing by putting his flag up and letting it go to VAR, who left it up to Colin.
"From the pictures I've seen, I think it's strange that the goal wasn't given."
Both sides would have felt they had claim to all three points in Dundee, with Ross Laidlaw the busier of the two goalkeepers but the Staggies creating the more clear-cut chances.
As well as Brown's disallowed goal, Simon Murray will have felt he should have done better in the first half when he was one-on-one with Carson, only to shoot straight at the goalkeeper.
Eamonn Brophy also went close later on, with an effort from the edge of the box that went just wide of the mark.
After three weeks without a match, though, there was also an element of relief from County at simply being back out on the park.
"I thought we had the clearer chances," Mackay stressed.
"We had the one-on-one in the first half, and on another day Simon scores that. There was one that just crept by at the end, and Eamonn usually scores them too.
"At the same time, we knew coming here that Dundee were a good team on a good run. Both teams probably needed the game – it was sticky in parts.
"Hopefully there are no more call-offs, but it was good to get back out there and I thought we grew into the game and got the ball into good areas in the second half.
"Speaking to the lads I just said there were times we had to stay calm and settle for the points instead of going for the win. We should have done that a few weeks ago against Hearts and we didn't, and we got punished.
"We came away from Dundee with a point, and we'll move on."
