'Car crash' - Crawley Town boss says referee ultimately made right decision with late penalty but questions how he got there
Crawley Town boss Scott Lindsey said the referee ultimately made the right decision with a late penalty against Oldham – but he said the process in which the decision was made didn’t make sense to him.
Ref Charles Breakspear pointed to the spot in Crawley’s favour after an apparent handball. But after nearly a minute talking to the Oldham players and then briefly to his assistant, he changed his mind and gave it the other way, much to the frustration of the Reds bench, players and fans.
But the general consensus afterwards was that Mr Breakspear had come to the right decision, it was the just the process that frustrated everyone.
To add to the frustration, earlier he had turned down what looked clear cut penalty when Harry Forster was bundled over. It was a thrilling end to a frenetic and entertaining game which ended 2-2.
When we spoke to Lindsey after the game, he hadn’t yet spoken to the referee but he told us: “I think the disappointing thing for me was that he gave the penalty and then he stood and had a chat with their players for 53 seconds. He then decided to walk over to the assistant referee to then come to the decision that it wasn't a penalty.
“I just don't see why he was doing that. Why do you not just give the penalty and then if you feel that maybe you got it wrong, walk straight to the assistant referee straight away and find out. Actually from blowing the whistle to giving the penalty to actually blowing the whistle to say it wasn't a penalty was over a minute.
“It doesn't make sense to me.”
He added: “I think that decision was right, albeit it was an absolute car crash of how it got to that. It took about a minute from giving the penalty to not giving the penalty, which I don't understand how you give it and then go and see the assistant referee and sort it out. I think it came to the right decision in the end, I think it was Charlie Barker who handballed it.”
Ryan Loft gave Reds a first half lead but Michael Mellon and Jack Stevens gave Oldham the lead after Crawley made a poor start to the second half. Super sub Kabby Tshimanga equalised with a good finish to salvage a point.