'It's the worst decision I've ever seen in football' - Crawley Town boss left fuming after penalty in draw with Swindon Town
Crawley Town boss Scott Lindsey described Swindon Town’s penalty as ‘the worst decision’ he has seen in football as his frustration with officials worsened in the 2-2 draw at the Broadfield Stadium.
A pulsating game and a stunning equalising strike by Kellan Gordon was overshadowed by a string of decisions that appeared to go against Crawley Town.
Reds took a deserved lead through Klaidi Lolos before Scott Malone was adjudged to have brought down Filozofe Matebe by referee Simon Mather who gave a penalty, which Aaron Drinan scored. Minutes later Mather denied Crawley a penalty when Jonny Russell was brought down in the box.
Billy Bodin then made it 2-1 in added time before Gordon struck with seconds to go.
It was a brilliant performance from the Reds who deserved all three points but manager Scott Lindsey found it hard to focus on the footballing side.
"it should have been three points,” he said. “But it's really difficult for me to describe how I feel at the moment because I'm so angry at what I've just seen and it's going to be really hard for me to do this interview without getting into trouble.
"I think it was all clear to see by everybody how poor that was from the officials and I think that I'm sitting here knowing that my team gave everything for that game and we deserve so much more than we got, yet we feel aggrieved.
"I'm fuming with it and I think the players just give everything, the fans were class What a great day and it's just really, really, it's not right, it's just not right and we're sitting here and we're bemused by what we've just seen.
“From a manager's point of view I should be focussing on the football, I'm finding it really hard and it's just not right. The game needs to change, people at the top need to see that game today and things need to change drastically because it's just not right. It's the biggest talking point so we can't not talk about it. I've got to be careful how I choose my words for sure but we have to talk about it.”
And on the penalty, Lindsey said: “It's the worst decision I've ever seen in football and that's a fact. I don't know how many minutes later Jonny Russell goes through and Will Wright brings him down with a clear penalty and we don't get it. There was an elbow to Kellan Gordon off the side, Gordon gets crashed into the side barriers, nothing's done.
"I thought first half he actually refereed it alright and then he just, I don't know what to say. It's just incredible what I've just seen, just like incredible.”
Lindsey also revealed chairman Raphael Khalili asked for refereeing chief Mike Jones’ number after the game. Lindsey has referenced many conversations with Jones about the standard of officiating this season and now Khalili wants to raise this performance with him.
Replying to a question about whether he was going to speak to the referee after the game, he said: “I have to think really carefully about this. The sporting director has just said to me, ‘we should go in and I'm coming in with you’. The chairman's also asked for Mike Jones's number already which I've sent him I've got to think about whether I go in or not.
"My analyst has got a list of things now that he's printing off for me to talk about to the referee in terms of times. I don't know whether I'm going to do it or not because it's two things that happen. Either I say something that I shouldn't say and then I get in trouble and miss the game which I can't afford to do. Or it's a waste of time. It's one or the other so there's kind of no point really, the truth be known.”