HADDINGTON were left frustrated as a controversial refereeing call denied them victory at West of Scotland on Saturday.

Jonny Riddell’s try was chalked off by the official, despite the Haddington back-row appearing to ground the ball correctly.

Phill Smith made his first start since returning from a stint playing in Sweden, with Alan Laidlaw dropping to the bench, while Kris Paterson returned in the back-row and Connor Munro replaced Mark Robertson on the wing.

And the Reds started the match well, but were dealt a blow when the home side opened the scoring as Andrew Goodall crashed over from a well-worked rolling maul. West led 5-0, but Gareth Pritchard reduced the arrears with a well-taken penalty.

And the South African stand-off, an ever-present in the side since his arrival at Neilson Park, kicked Haddington into the lead with a second penalty.

That lead was short-lived, though, as West used their driving lineout to score a second try. They tied in the Haddington defence before the ball was worked to Sandy McCallum and the centre barrelled his way over.

The gap was only four points at the break, but the Reds fell further behind early in the second half. Blair Smith kicked a penalty to put West 13-6 ahead, before the controversial no-try decision.

Riddell had broken through the West defence and when the former North Berwick man went to ground the ball, the referee judged he had knocked on.

To make matters worse for the travelling Reds, winger Kyle Adams was then sent to the sin-bin.

Rhodri Thomas’ side held out well during Adams’ time off the pitch, but fell further behind thanks to a penalty, 16-6.

The power of the Haddington pack was evident throughout, and that power helped them to their only try of the day, with a solid scrum allowing Kyle McGarvie over for his third try of the season.

Pritchard missed the conversion, and Haddington were left ruing chances to win the game.

Head coach Rhodri Thomas admitted the squad were frustrated not to have won. He told Courier Sport: “The players put in an excellent performance and are frustrated to come up short. We created several opportunities that we were unable to capitalise on and on many occasions showed our attacking threat. We are sitting fourth at the half-way point in the league and feel confident that we can continue to challenge the teams at the top as the season progresses.”

Haddington: J Ferguson, K Adams, K Hamilton, L Clutton, C Munro, G Pritchard, J Hamilton; G Cockburn, C Stuart, P Smith, B Laing, H Hamilton, J Riddell, K Paterson, M Renton.