FOOTBALL MANAGER ACCUSES REFEREE OF FAILING TO CONSIDER SKIPPER’S WELFARE AFTER ALLOWING PLAY TO CONTINUE Smith’s fury over Harvey injury Canterbury City

A horrendous facial injury to skipper Laurence Harvey took the gloss off Canterbury’s excellent 3-0 victory at Glebe in the Southern Counties East League on Saturday.

Harvey was left with serious damage to his cheekbone and eye socket after a second-half challenge with Jack Harris and will now miss the rest of the season.

Manager Ben Smith was furious referee Aivaras Lukauskis did not stop play sooner, claiming he failed to look after Harvey’s welfare.

He said: “Laurence has got multiple fractures to his right cheekbone and potential damage to his eye socket which is being looked at by a specialist on Thursday.

“He’s a big man but he was on the floor screaming. Everyone could see he was in pain yet the referee let play go on for 30 seconds to a minute, it was shocking.

“The health and safety of the players has to be the main concern, but when I asked the referee if he had seen it (the challenge) he said yes he had and there was nothing in it, he said it had been done by the player’s hand.

“I’m not here to vilify Jack Harris, who isn’t a malicious player but it was clearly not done by his hand. Laurence was taken straight to hospital and was still being sick the following morning.”

Among the big pluses for Smith were the displays of Ryan Cooper and Danny Lawrence and they both featured as City broke the deadlock five minutes before half-time.

From a corner Lawrence –in his first start for nine months – played the ball short to Cooper who looked up and from wide left, arrowed a terrific shot into the far top corner

City were indebted to Delo for a great double save to keep his team in front straight after the break and on 57 minutes they doubled their lead as James Turner sent in a delightful first-time lob over the keeper.

Next came the sickening injury to Harvey but City kept their focus and added a third goal in stoppage time through Josh Froggatt who slotted home from an acute angle.

Smith said: “Ryan Cooper was oustanding, I know I signed him but what a signing he is for us, he was head and shoulders above everyone else on the pitch.

“He’s playing out of position at left-back but set up every attack for us and in the first half, when we weren’t really at it he sparked us into life.”

Delo, Michael Turner, Cooper, Harvey (Quinn), Sayer, Lee, Tenyue (Lightfoot), Danny Lawrence, Casey, James Turner (Rob Lawrence), Froggatt,unused Sub: Woollcott n City were due to play their re-arranged Challenge Cup quarter-final at home to Chatham last night (Wednesday).

City host Tunbridge Wells in the league at Salters Lane on Saturday in their final game before the FA Vase quarter-final at home to Biggleswade on Sunday, February 24.

City:

favourite to be given the captaincy while experienced allrounder Darren Stevens has been leading Claremont CC in South Africa this winter, but Walker says the county are keeping their options open.

No decision is expected until during or after the club’s preseason training camp in Paarl, South Africa, next month.

Walker added: “Looking in from the outside people might think there are some obvious candidates but we’re not thinking like that. It’s an open book, there are lots of different arguments for who gets it.

“We will sit down and work out the best options.”