St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin felt the officials got it wrong by chalking off Conor McCarthy’s headed effort in their goalless draw with St Johnstone.

McCarthy thought he had given his team an early lead only for the goal to be deemed offside.

It was the closest either side came to netting in a fraught match, although Glenn Middleton struck the crossbar for the visitors in the closing minutes.

Ethan Erhahon was sent off for St Mirren just before full-time for a second booking.

Goodwin said: “I think the goal we had disallowed was onside. I watched it back with the analyst. Conor McCarthy is bang in line with Shaun Rooney.

“Those are the kind of decisions you need to go for you. The linesman was too quick to put the flag up and it was a poor decision.

“It’s a disappointing one because, based on the opening 45 minutes, I think it’s a game we should have won.

“You could sense the tension around the place in the last 15 minutes, the fans were getting frustrated, but credit to the players for getting another point on the board.”

St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson was also not overly disappointed after taking a point.

He said: “The first half was pretty even and they had a few set-plays that caused us problems. In the second half we started to look dangerous in the game and looked like the team that was going to go on and win it.

“Unfortunately we’re just not able to put the ball in the back of the net at the moment. Glenn had a fantastic strike at the end and on another day it would have ended up in the top corner.

“He gave us a spark when he came on and so did Chris Kane. It’s a game we go away from feeling positive about.”

St Mirren midfielder Jamie McGrath has been the subject of a lot of recent transfer speculation and Goodwin hopes he can hold on to the Republic of Ireland international.

He added: “We’ve got a valuation for Jamie. We need to stand strong, be firm and we are.

“If the valuation is met, who knows what might happen and we’ve got a contingency plan in place should that happen.

“I don’t want to lose Jamie. No manager wants to lose their best players, but we need to be fair to him as well.”