'A bit of a waste of time and effort' - Crawley Town boss has say on speaking to officials after a game
Manager Scott Lindsey said talking to referees ‘becomes a bit of a waste of time and effort’ after Crawley Town were denied two penalties in added time against Oldham Athletic.
In the 2-2 draw at the Broadfield Stadium last weekend, the Reds thought they had a last-gasp penalty when referee Charles Breakspear pointed to the spot for a suspected handball.
After extensive protests from the Oldham players and consulting with his assistant, Breakspear reversed his decision and awarded the visitors a free kick instead.
Moments before, Harry Forster was brought down in the box, but no penalty was awarded despite Lindsey claiming it was “clear” foul immediately after the match.
The boss also told the press he would speak to the referee after his post-match interview. However, Lindsey didn’t find the meeting particularly valuable.
He said: “I’ve been in the referee’s room and got into trouble before through speaking the truth. And sometimes it’s really difficult to go in there and have a conversation without putting yourself in a position.
“So, I find that difficult and you don’t normally get anything out of it because all you’re telling them is that something you’ve seen live, but you’ve also seen it back where they haven’t.
“So, they’re just going to tell you what they thought they saw at the time and that’s it. Nothing really comes out of them meetings when you do go in afterwards.”
The lengthy delay between Breakspear awarding a penalty and changing his decision baffled the Reds boss.
“I just couldn’t understand why he took so long to correct his decision from the penalty to not a penalty,” he said. “I think he got the decision right and I said that after the game. I do believe that.
“But why it took so long is just beyond me. If you’ve got any doubt, go and see the assistant referee straight away. Why take over a minute? And whilst you were taking over a minute, you’re talking to their players for that period of time, which I didn’t understand.
“So, I think he made a bit of a hash of it. I don’t want to put myself in trouble, but I just think it became messy towards the end of the game. And I actually felt that he refereed the game quite well up until probably the last ten minutes where there started to be some decisions that were soft.”
Lindsey reiterated his belief that Forster should have been awarded a penalty but questioned whether his players appealed with enough conviction.
“When I watch it back, it’s a definite penalty but I don’t see any of my players claiming. I don’t see one player. I’m not trying to say cheat or anything silly like that, but claim, put your hands in the air.
“I’m not saying run at the referee either, but I’m saying claim for it. I take it back to the Gillingham game when Gillingham got a penalty for us that was supposed to be a handball, which wasn’t a handball.
“I showed the players – seven Gillingham players are running at the referee with their hands in the air. I’m not saying that’s a right thing to do but it makes the referee, probably gives him that nudge towards making a decision. We don’t do that.”
Lindsey encouraged his team to add that element to their game. He said: “We’re a little bit naive in them moments. We just carry on playing cause we’re too honest.
“I don’t want us to not be honest but what I want us to be is... have that little bit of edge about us to have them thoughts of dark arts in there too potentially.
“And it was a penalty, just to add to it, where Charlie Barker’s handball at Gillingham wasn’t. So, it just goes to show when you claim you may get it.”
Further reflecting on the draw with Oldham, the manager was pleased with the character his side showed to come from behind late on.
“I think that there’s elements of the game [that] were really good and bits we weren’t so good,” Lindsey said. “Probably, I need to take a step back and see that and think that we’re not always going to get our way.
“We’re not always going to have 90 minutes of pure possession football that we’re in complete control, and that’s what I want obviously. But we’re not always going to have it our way and sometimes you come across teams that stop you from doing that and make it difficult for you and Oldham did that.
“They’re good at that. [They’ve] got some real experienced players in their team. You look at the subs they brought on – Joe Garner, and players like that, played at the Championship most his career. To think that it’s going to be plain sailing’s naive and it’s never going to be.”
The performance left Lindsey with more positives than negatives and optimistic with his players’ progress.
“We were the team that finished stronger out of the two, and I felt we were the team that would have gone on for another ten minutes. I think we’d have won it. Obviously, the game’s not another ten minutes so we needed to do it in the time we were out there, but we didn’t.
“Maybe we lose that game two months ago. You maybe lose that game three months ago but we’re not now. We’re coming from behind. We’ve come from behind in a few games and whilst we scored first on Saturday, we still showed character.
“I was actually pleased with it in the long run. Probably a little bit of frustration with the way we started that second half but we’re not always going to get it our way.”