Irvine Meadow co-manager Colin Spence says their contentious second half penalty was justified after the referee ignored their calls for one in the first half during their 1-0 win over Benburb.

The only goal of the game came via the penalty spot, Jamie Martin going down in the box to win the spot kick.

Then up stepped Mark McLennan to dispatch and get Medda back to winning ways in the West of Scotland Football League Premier Division.

Speaking to the Times, Spence said: “It probably does fall into the soft category but the Benburb player has made contact with Martin, so he gives the referee a decision to make.

“But I think everyone is forgetting, we had a stonewall penalty in the first half their player has clattered into Andy McLaughlin and the referee has given a corner.

“He maybe took the easy option in the first half but then in the second half we get one that maybe is not a penalty, so it evened itself out.”

Despite picking up the win, Spence admits it was not the best performance on the park for Medda.

He added: “It was not a great performance at the weekend but we said to the players before the game that to win up there we needed to battle.

“Benburb are no mugs, they have had a good start to the season and picked up a few points.

“So, I said to them if we can keep a clean sheet then we have not failed to score during a game so far this season.

“It might be an ugly win which is what happened but it was very important to take three points after a poor performance against Kilwinning Rangers.”

Next up for Medda is a return to cup duty as they take on Auchinleck Talbot in the First Round of the Scottish Cup, with Spence hoping to end their opponent’s undefeated start to the campaign.

“Hopefully our journey can continue but we will need to do something that no one has done so far this season and beat Talbot.

“We will be up for the challenge but we will need to be at our very best and hope a couple of their players have an off day.”