Dos unhappy at way Rebels ‘swayed’ ref
Hawks boss Paul Doswell was unhappy with Slough Town’s players for their reaction to the tackle that led to George Mclennan’s dismissal.
And Doswell insisted that played a part in ‘swaying’ referee Jason Richardson’s decision to brandish a red card to the full-back.
Hawks had McLennan dismissed after just 19 minutes of their 0-0 home National League South draw against Slough Town.
The defender’s lunge on Matt Lench prompted a number of his team-mates to surround Richardson.
Having had the chance to watch it back, Doswell deemed it a ‘soft’ dismissal but felt Slough players’ reaction played a part in Mclennan’s dismissal.
‘I’ve seen it back and for me it was a strong yellow and a soft red,’ said the Hawks boss. ‘It was the reaction of the Slough players that got into the referee and swayed it.
‘The reason it was a red was that seven or eight of their players surrounded the referee and without question it had an influence on him producing a red card.
‘I was disappointed that we got a red card and when you’ve got to play 75 minutes with 10 men it makes it very, very difficult.’
Doswell gave huge credit to his side as they still managed to pick up a result despite going down to 10 men so early.
Hawks could even have recorded a victory had striker Tommy Wright found the bottom corner after a fine individual run just before the break.
But Doswell felt things were not falling the way of his side as it ended goalless.
He added: ‘Ultimately, I think we’ve got to give credit to the players for playing 75 minutes with 10 men.
‘We stayed brave, we went with a 4-3-2 and kept two up. T‘he easiest thing in the world to do is go 4-4-1 but we didn’t do that.
‘We did have a lot of half chances and things just not falling for us, that’s what I felt about the whole day, nothing quite fell for us.’
Hawks are back in league action at Ebbsfleet United on Saturday.
That’s what I felt about the whole day, nothing fell for us, but we stayed brave ... Paul Doswell