Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna can't believe his side have only been awarded three penalties this season. STUART WATSON looks back at some big refereeing decisions.
BOLTON (H)
Referee Samuel Barrott adjudged that Leif Davis tripped Conor Bradley in the box and Aaron Morley converted from the spot to give Bolton the lead at Portman Road on the opening day of the season.
“To my eye that was a little bit soft and came from nothing,” was McKenna’s verdict.
Soft? Yes. But also a slightly clumsy challenge in the box from the jet-lagged new signing.
Lee Evans equalised in a game that finished 1-1.
SHREWSBURY (A)
Referee Will Finnie didn’t give Town what looked to be a stonewall penalty in the fourth minute when Kane Vincent-Young was scissored from behind in the box by Tom Flanagan.
“I haven't seen it back yet, but it looked it to me,” said McKenna.
“If it's a penalty it's possibly a red as well.
“Thankfully it didn't have a big impact on the game."
Town went on to win 3-0 in Shropshire.
BARNSLEY (H)
Town had penalty appeals waved away towards the end of the first half when Luke Thomas tangled with Leif Davis in the box.
Major controversy followed as Marcus Harness had what looked to be perfectly legal goal disallowed when the Blues were 2-1 up.
Harness showed great desire to hustle his way to goal past two defenders. If anything, he was the one impeded.
But a free-kick was given to Barnsley and they went on to secure a draw.
“It was a clear goal, it was 3-1,” fumed McKenna.
“I thought the referee (Stephen Martin) was much too keen to get involved in the game right throughout.
“This is the first time I've ever spoken about the quality of the refereeing and I don't want to speak too much.
“I think they're all really good guys, we speak with them before and after the games, but I really do think they need to look at who is designated to referee the games here at Portman Road.
“I think it's a different challenge, it's 25,000 people, it's an intense atmosphere and it needs referees with the experience and the personality to come here, stay calm, not get involved and allow the game to flow and to not make unnecessarily big decisions.”
He added: “Usually you expect more decisions as a home team. We don't want them and we're not asking for them, but that's the way the decisions usually go, from my experience, when you're playing in a big stadium in front of big support.
“Today it was as almost as if the referee was trying to make the opposite point and make big decisions against the home team and against the crowd and maybe had a reason for that.”
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY (A)
Town led 2-0 going into the final stages, but ended up drawing 2-2.
On Michael Smith’s late leveller, McKenna said: “I thought it looked offside at the time to be honest.
“I haven't seen really good footage back, but I have seen an image where he does look offside.
“But my feeling at the time was that the striker looked ahead of the defenders and ahead of the ball.”
Replays are inconclusive.
BRISTOL ROVERS (H)
Sam Finley got away with looked to be a stamp on Lee Evans just before half-time.
Referee Alan Young then waved away strong penalty appeals for handball after Harness had juggled the ball past Finley in the box.
Both those incidents came when Town were 1-0 up. They went on to win 2-0. Rovers had two players dismissed late on.
“Credit to the referee for how he allowed the game to flow,” said McKenna afterwards.
PORTSMOUTH (H)
Wes Burns won it late on after Colby Bishop had twice equalised from the penalty spot.
There were no complaints about the first spot-kick award (Christian Walton forced to foul Dane Scarlett after Luke Woolfenden’s error).
The second, given against Sam Morsy after he caught an attacker when trying to hook a throw-in into the box clear, was more debatable.
“Two penalties against in a home game is quite bizarre,” said McKenna, Charles Breakspear having been the referee.
“That's three against us here this season and we've not had a penalty in 30-plus games (35 to be exact).
“If we're talking decisions we're still probably due a few.”
MORECAMBE (A)
Two games later, Town were awarded two penalties in a game.
“It's funny how it goes sometimes,” said McKenna, Conor Chaplin seeing the first spot-kick saved, but Lee Evans converting the other in a 2-1 comeback win.
“I thought the referee (Thomas Kirk) was very good.
“Of course I'm going to say that because we got penalties, but I believe it's one of his first games in the league and I thought the way he managed the crowd, the way he managed the flow of the game and stayed strong with his decisions was very good.
“It was two clear penalties of course. If you have players like Kyle (Edwards), who can go one-v-one, and Kayden (Jackson), who has electric pace, to catch defenders out then you have a better chance of getting penalties.
“We were certainly due some."
CAMBRIDGE UNITED (A)
Kyle Edwards was dismissed for two yellow cards inside 17 minutes.
The first was for a high foot in the box, the second – very harshly – was for an adjudged dive down the side of the area.
Town, having started the game well on top, went on to lose the dead rubber 1-0.
“It's a nice little overlap, he's got the one-v-one, he's gone past him and, I've seen it on the video, he has clipped him,” said Blues assistant boss Martyn Pert.
“I don't know whether it was inside or outside the box, but he's fouled him. He's not dived.
“I haven't spoke to the referee (Thomas Parsons) about it and it's probably best not to really.
“I just couldn't believe it. He just didn't need to make the decision.
“You can always go by players' reactions and no-one was going 'he's dived!' Fine, don't give the penalty, don't give a foul, just let it go out of play and keep the game going.”
CHARLTON (A)
A crazy, rollercoaster of a game finished 4-4 at The Valley.
Then Addicks boss Ben Garner was sent-off during the match and fined for his post-match comments about referee Josh Smith, insisting his side were punished for ‘a perfectly-timed tackle’ and that Tyreece John-Jules was ‘a yard offside’ when that subsequent free-kick led to Town going 2-0 up.
He fumed: “You can’t get those decisions wrong. There are livelihoods on the line. The standard of refereeing is nowhere near good enough. He’s not good enough for League One.”
By contrast, McKenna said: “The referee reffed it well, in general. It wasn’t easy with a crowd who are, of course, looking for all the decisions to the home team.
“The officials did a good job.
“We’ve had plenty of our share of incidents that we feel aggrieved by and I could easily sit here and list them – like every team could do – but my approach is, within reason, to focus on ourselves and control what we can control.
“Referees are there in general doing their best and as long as there is an honest performance, which I thought today the referee was, and tried to make the right decisions, they can make mistakes as well as both sets of players and staff can do.”
CHELTENHAM (H)
Ipswich had three penalty appeals in the game - two handball shouts and one for a tangle with Freddie Ladapo.
“I've not seen any of them back, but I thought the handball at the end looked clear from where we were,” said McKenna.
“I thought the time added on (seven minutes) wasn't particularly in context with what we've seen this season with us having eight or nine minutes added on in games.
“There are a few things I could say about the referee's performance, but I would rather focus on us and what we need to do better.”
FLEETWOOD (H)
Following a frustrating 1-1 draw, McKenna was asked whether his side ought to have been awarded a penalty in the dying moments when Kayden Jackson appeared to be fouled from behind in the box.
“I haven’t seen it back,” he said. “At the time it looked like a penalty, it looked like he was in front of the defender and the defender barged in front.
“I have seen the one on Cameron Burgess in the first half and I thought it was ridiculous. He got rugby tackled from behind.
“I’m really, really, really reticent to talk about referees but at some stage you’re just hoping that there’s going to be some levelling up because in every game here there have been two or three big decisions to be made and the referees seem reluctant to make them.
“The only time we’ve had penalties this year was when I spoke about it after Barnsley. I would hope that things are given without managers having to shout and holler from the sidelines and publicly.”
PETERBOROUGH (H)
Strong penalty appeals were waved away when Leif Davis appeared to be sandwiched in the box. Further protests were ignored when Kayden Jackson’s shirt was clearly tugged in the box.
“Thankfully it didn’t cost us today,” said McKenna, speaking after his side’s 2-1 win.
“I'll repeat what I said last week. I think to have had so much play and domination in the box here at home and to have so many appeals and to have so many challenges in the penalty area, for me, it’s really difficult to understand that we’ve had one penalty and given away three when it’s probably 75 per cent, 25 per cent (the other way) in terms of the appeals and the challenges.
“I’m sure that will balance up at some point.”
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