Dean Smith rues referee decisions
Monday 21st February 2011, 10:00AM GMT.
Walsall manager Dean Smith has refused to blame refereeing blunders for defeat at Colchester but insisted the officials should be embarrassed.
The Saddlers missed their chance to escape the League One drop zone after a controversial 2-0 defeat in Essex on Saturday.
Referee Mick Russell awarded a second-half penalty when Aaron Lescott clearly won the ball from Ian Henderson.
Smith also insisted Jon Macken was fouled in the build-up to David Perkins’ 17th minute opener and questioned Russell’s calls.
However, the manager conceded the Saddlers didn’t deserve to win.
He said: “Goals are defining moments of games and the ones they scored, for me, weren’t goals.
“The first was a foul on Jon and they actually showed it on the big screen just after it which was a bit embarrassing for the officials.
“And the only person in the whole ground who thought it was a penalty was the linesman – the referee didn’t even think it was a penalty.
“Aaron Lescott won the ball and the linesman gave a penalty. It happens but I don’t want to get away from the fact we didn’t deserve to win the game.”
Smith spoke to Russell in the wake of defeat and will rate the Hertfordshire official’s performance after an inconsistent display.
The Saddlers boss said: “Today I will mark the referee and I’ll mark him accordingly.
“I calmed down after the last 20 minutes, I think there were six substitutes in the second half and the palaver over the penalty and we still only had three minutes of injury time.
“I can’t understand it.”
The loss kept the Saddlers third bottom, three points from safety, and Smith insisted, after a post-mortem, he will move on ahead of Saturday’s visit of Rochdale.
He said: “I’ve said before the Banks’s Stadium will decide out destiny.
“Saturday was disappointing because we were looking to record back-to-back victories, unfortunately it didn’t happen but we’ve got to move on.
“There’s nothing we can do about it, we can’t change the decisions or the result.”
UK Sport
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You are doing a great job Dean
The players are up for it now thanks to your management skills
I was at the Bournemouth game which we lost but I made a point of applauding the team from the field – we were very good and deserved something from the game against a top of the table team – we desrved a point from the game
I am looking forward to another tough game on Saturday but I am a lot more hopeful now that Dean is in charge.
Up the saddlers
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