KRIS BOYD insisted referee Andrew Dallas was right to resist calls to flash a red card at him amid dive claims in Tuesday night’s tussle in Dingwall.

The Kilmarnock striker, already booked for protesting a free-kick, was denied a late penalty claim moments before grabbing the last-gasp equaliser against Ross County.

Boyd faced howls of outrage from the home crowd and calls from opposition players to be booked for a second time after going down easily in the penalty area.

The ex-Rangers and Scotland striker confessed he knew it was no penalty, but insisted he had lost footing, rather than dived, under the close attention of County defender Marcus Fraser.

Boyd said: “To be fair, I felt I slipped and you are always going to try to get something.

“I thought Andrew Dallas refereed the game well – he had a good game. It was the right decision. There are no complaints from me – for a change.”

Boyd’s only grumble was Kilmarnock’s lacklustre performance before the break, with County storming 2-0 ahead as Chris Routis and Jason Naismith picked off chances from Chris Eagles’ pin-point dead ball deliveries.

Had they performed in the first half as they did in the second, when Eamonn Brophy and Boyd it back to level, then the Killie striker felt his team would have been celebrating a third consecutive win.

Boyd said: “When you consider how bad we were in the first half – after the positive result we had at the weekend – it just shows we aren’t good enough to turn up believing we have a God-given right to win games of football.

“We always need to put in the effort and didn’t do that in the first half against Ross County.

“In the second half, we were a totally different team and it was a great point to go back down the road with.

“But if we had turned up in the first half, who knows what might have been.

“I don’t think it was complacency. We did everything in the same way we always do in the couple of days before the trip north.

“We just started sloppily and let Ross County dominate, particularly at set plays – something we were warned against. They are a big physical team and we got done with two set plays.

“We have to try to take the positives from it and that is we left with a point from being 2-0 down. We keep the run going.

“But if we had started the game properly, it might have been a third win in a row.”

Boyd, though, feels momentum remains with Steve Clarke’s side heading into Saturday’s home test against Motherwell.

He added: “Under the gaffer, we have been organised and difficult to beat. There are lots of positives to take, but we need to look at set plays in terms of defending them better.

“I thought we were all over the place in the first half in that regard. Ross County weren’t even in our box, I don’t think, in the second half.

“If we can take that second half performance on into the next few games, we will do just fine.”