JIM BANNED AND FINED

The SFA's General Purposes Committee has found Shire coach Jim McInally was guilty of excessive misconduct at the club's play-off semi-final match with Cowdenbeath on May 16th.

Jim was sent to the stand twice by the referee during the 1-1 draw which ended the club's promotion hopes.

After receiving a report from the match officials and a written response from the club the committee decided Jim was guilty.

He has been given a twelve match touchline ban and a £1,000 fine.

It means Jim won't be back in the dug out until the meeting with Montrose on December 5th.

There will be no appeal from the club.

"I again would like to apologise to the club's supporters for my behaviour that day. I  was out of order," said Jim.

"But I  stand by my comments at the time. When the referee sent me to the stand I thought I  was harshly dealt with.

"And when I  came back down after they scored I didn't go back into the technical area. All I  did was stand on the stockcar track and shout across to David Nicholls to try and calm the players down, because I  could see how angry they were.

I  was about to go back into the stand when Cowdenbeath's physio saw me and pointed that out to the linesman. At that point I  lost the head a bit.

"I am not proud of what happened but hopefully we can put it behind us now and move on."