Wagner risks FA charge by blaming defeat on Oliver’s red-card call

The Football Association will study comments made by Huddersfield manager David Wagner today in the wake of the straight red card for Steve Mounie that swung the balance of this match against his side.

Leading thanks to Mathias Jorgensen’s first-minute header, Huddersfield lost Mounie for a studs-up challenge on Yves Bissouma. Referee Michael Oliver later denied them a penalty after Pascal Gross grabbed Alex Pritchard.

Those decisions, plus a late booking for Brighton’s Leon Balogun, which Wagner claimed could have been a red, led to the Huddersfield manager launching an impassioned verbal onslaught in Oliver’s direction in his post-match interviews.

While Wagner was relatively restrained, his claim that “the referee has a big part to play and I don’t think he did his best”, may yet be interpreted as the manager questioning the official’s integrity.

Huddersfield forward Laurent Depoitre certainly echoed the party line that Oliver was responsible for denying them not just one point, but all three, as a strong run of three Off: Steve Mounie’s studs-up challenge on Yves Bissouma games unbeaten came to an end. He said: “I think it’s a hard decision. He [Mounie] didn’t think it was a red because he said they were going for the ball and he didn’t have the intention to do something wrong.

“After one minute, we were controlling the game. They were not very dangerous and then there were a few decisions from the referee we don’t really understand.

“It changes the game completely. I think it was a clear penalty on Pritchard. It could have been 2-0 and the game would have been different. I don’t like to speak about the referees, but I think he played a big role in this defeat.”

Of far more importance, after headed goals from Shane Duffy and Florin Andone earned victory, Wagner now has to lift his side for tomorrow’s visit to Bournemouth and a vital spell of upcoming fixture, where they face the other five teams in the bottom six before the middle of next month.

Brighton, meanwhile, are looking up and to the future with a top10 finish a real possibility. Manager Chris Hughton confirmed that FA technical director Dan Ashworth would join the club in a similar role in March.

“If you look at Paul Barber’s role as CEO and the way the club is going – we have a first team making progress, an academy set-up that is striving, a ladies team, a medical department,” said Hughton. “Dan’s role is to get on top of things that Paul would find it difficult to cover.”