Striker Jonah Ayunga says he won’t even bother celebrating next time he nets for the Saints.
The powerful forward was St Mirren ’s first victim of a VAR reversal, with his second half strike against Dundee United chalked off after Keanu Baccus was harshly judged to have fouled Aziz Behich in the build up to the goal.
Thankfully for the Buddies Ayunga’s replacement Alex Greive netted a winner just four minutes after climbing off the bench to maintain the Paisley club’s incredible home run, which now stretches to five wins in six matches.
Ayunga revealed he didn’t even jump up to celebrate the Kiwi’s dramatic header after being stung by VAR on its weekend debut.
Ayunga told Renfrewshire Live Sport: “It’s a weird one because we watched the Celtic game and VAR was involved a lot in that, and it was allowed a lot in our game. There was a lot of checking stuff. As players, as fans, you’re thinking what is actually being looked at.
“Especially with the disallowed goal, you can’t see anything wrong with it in the build up and it gets pulled up all the way back to half way. It looked very soft at the time.
“There’s not too much explanation. The ref said he was getting told something by VAR, then he goes to the monitor and as soon as they do that you know they are going to change the decision.
“You know it’s going to be a while before someone sticks with their on field decision and backs themselves to do it.
“I won’t bother celebrating next time in case they pull it back. Sometimes in your head when you score you think there could be something wrong with it, but with that one I didn’t think there was. I watched it all the way, made sure I was onside for the pass and obviously scored.
“A few people got up (for Greive’s winner), I didn’t move. I thought they were going to check it for something. You’ve just got to wait for the final decision now.”
The Buddies moved up to fourth in the Premiership table, level on points with Jim Goodwin’s Aberdeen, thanks to Saturday’s 2-1 victory against the Terrors.
Ayunga insists there’s still more to come from the Saints this season as their solid defensive structure continues to bring in the points.
Ayunga said: “It was eventful. We hit the bar, the post, had a disallowed goal and plenty more.
“We’ve been defensively solid. Obviously we conceded, but in other games we’ve kept clean sheets.
“That’s what we build on and we always back ourselves to get one or two. Everyone is confident, we still want to do more, we still think we can do better.
“I think we can do better, personally myself and as a group as well.”
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