Dev incensed by decisions
Magpies boss turns the air blue after poor officiating cost his side victory over Shots
One of the worst refereeing displays seen at York Road for a very long time cost Maidenhead United the chance of all three points against Aldershot Town on Tuesday night, and a pivotal result that would have all but quashed the Magpies' relegation fears.
The Magpies were the better of the two sides over 90 minutes, particularly in the second half when it felt like oneway traffic for the hosts, however, they failed to get the second goal their performance deserved, and that's largely down to the display of the officials.
United took the lead through Emile Acquah's second minute strike, his 11th goal of the season for a man who's been included in Paul Fairclough's England C team for next week's clash against Wales C. But the Shots fired back from the penalty spot in the sixth minute, Jake Hutchinson blasting the ball down the middle as Alexis Andre Jr dived to his right. The visitors struck the post through Justin Amaluzor after a moment of confusion between Andre Jr and Idris Odutayo, however, they were second best throughout the second half.
Magpies manager Alan Devonshire was left dumbfounded by some of the decisions which cost his side victory. Had VAR been operational, United would surely have won this game by two clear goals and Aldershot would have finished the game with 10 men.
Sam Barratt twice saw close range efforts ruled out, the first for offside in the 20th minute, when he appeared to be in line with defenders on the goal line, and the second with around 12 minutes to play when he forced the ball over the line after Ashley Nathaniel-George's shot had been tipped onto the bar. Players and fans in the vicinity all felt it was clearly over the line, as did Devonshire. However, that wasn't the worst of the decisions, as Haji Minoga escaped being sent off after clattering Barratt with a high boot as the last man in the 63rd minute.
An infuriated Devonshire said: “The ball was two yards over the line up there. Sam has smashed it in. There was a red card down here, where he's been taken out high, like Kane (Ferdinand) at Woking last year, it's a joke. How can Sam be offside in the first half when they've got two on the goal line and the free kick was taken here. The referee is a joke, an absolute joke. At the end of the day, we didn't play that well first half, but we scored in the second half and the ball was two yards over the line. The fourth official is saying no it wasn't, but it was two yards. It's s**t.”
Barratt was also less than impressed after those decisions denied him the chance to be the side's match-winner.
“With the first one, I put the ball in at the back post and I don't see how it could be offside when their wall was about two yards from the by-line. I'll have to watch that one back. My gut feeling is that I was on, but I won't knock it too much until I've seen it.
“The second one, with about five minutes to go, I've clearly put it about three yards over the line, the keeper was in his own net, so it's frustrating. I think everyone saw that it was in apart from the officials, but I can't say much more than that.
“I think for the high tackle, that was one of those that could have been a red, it could have been a yellow. I got to it first and he's kicked the ball at head height but caught me a bit as well. I was frustrated not to do better from the free-kick I was awarded.
“We dominated the second half; we were a lot better. The first half wasn't good enough. The gaffer said to us we were a lot better in the second half and we've got to take that into the next game now. Looking at other results, we've done alright but that three points would have been a lot nicer.”
United will be hoping some of the luck they missed out on against Aldershot evens out when they welcome bottom of the table Maidstone United to York Road on Saturday.
Despite the frustration, the Magpies moved a point further clear of the relegation places and they now have a sizeable gap of 11 points over clubs in the bottom four.