Kilmarnock have lodged a complaint against the SFA's head of refereeing over comments made about winger Jordan Jones.

Jones accepted a two-match ban for diving to win a penalty in a 2-1 win over Dundee earlier this month.

But Kilmarnock insisted the Northern Irishman denied the offence and only accepted the ban because the club had no evidence to submit in his defence.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Rugby Park club responded to a letter sent by SFA referees chief John Fleming to the Dundee Supporters' Association.

The letter read: "The two-match suspension offered to the player has been accepted by the club which, in my opinion, clearly indicates the player committed an act of simulation during the match.

"On accepting the two-match suspension, the club, in my opinion, are accepting the player committed the act, solely to deceive the referee."

Fleming was responding to DSA claims that referee Steven McLean should not take charge of Kilmarnock matches due to family connections with the club.

Kilmarnock said the club had now submitted a formal complaint to the SFA and called for an investigation.

The club's statement read: "In our statement on the matter (Jones' suspension), we made it clear that Jordan denied committing an act of simulation and denied any intention to deceive the referee.

"The sole reason for not challenging the charge was that we had no additional substantive evidence to submit for consideration so therefore took a pragmatic view to accept the penalty and move on.

"Having taken this decision and accepted the penalty, we expected this matter to be closed.

"It is unprecedented for the SFA's head of refereeing to make remarks of this nature.

"The original correspondence from the DSA to the SFA and Mr Fleming expressing concern over the suitability of Steven McLean to take charge of Kilmarnock matches was completely baseless and cast unfounded aspersions on the referee's character.

"It is highly ironic that after another organisation has cast aspersions on the integrity of a match official, it is our club which has been the subject of negative remarks by a senior officer of the SFA.

"A formal complaint has been submitted to the SFA and we expect the matter to be investigated fully."