FURIOUS WILSON BLASTS RED REF
DANNY WILSON rarely minces his words and the furious Barnsley boss felt Kelvin Etuhu’s dismissal cost his side victory against Brighton.
Both sides created little during a largely uninspiring game at Oakwell, though the Tykes were arguably the most unfortunate as Ryan McLaughlin saw a header strike the crossbar in the second half.
Etuhu was sent off late in the game after he was shown two yellow cards within the space of three crazy minutes, and Wilson made clear what he thought of that decision from referee Tony Harrington.
“It was absolute crap,” he said. “The second yellow I can probably accept, but the first one was shocking.
“These decisions are costly because I believe if we’d have kept ten on the field we’d have won this game.
“It's such a shame for Kelvin. He’s been outstanding again but weve ended up having to really dig in during that final period.
“It was a good performance from us overall. It is a terrific point for us.”
At least the Tykes lifted themselves a point closer to fourth-bottom Charlton, and they did it with skipper Stephen Dawson driving the midfield despite his arrest on Thursday in connection with spot-fixing allegations.
Wilson added: “Stephen had no hesitation when asked to play.
“He was outstanding again, just like he has been during the last six games or so.
The home fans were particularly boisterous early in the game thanks to back-to-back away wins before yesterday, but neither side created a real clear-cut opportunity.
Dale Jennings forced a decent save out of Seagulls’ keeper Tomasz Kuszczak early on, then Tykes midfielder Liam Lawrence fluffed a decent opportunity when he blazed over wildly from the edge of the box.
The visitors finally showed signs of life after the half-hour mark. Argentinian hit-man Leonardo Ulloa fizzed a smart shot narrowly over the crossbar, while Dale Stephens ought to have done better when he failed to test goalkeeper Luke Steele from just inside the box.
McLaughlin was thwarted by the woodwork seven minutes into the second period.
The young Liverpool loanee midfielder rose superbly to meet Tom Kennedy’s cross, but his welldirected header hit the crossbar before being hacked to safety by a frantic Seagulls’ defence.
At the other end Ulloa saw a driven effort cleared off the line by Etuhu, before the Tykes’ makeshift right-back was sent off with 14 minutes to go after twice impeding lively substitute Kazenga Lualua.
Lualua almost rubbed salt in the hosts’ wound when he lashed a shot inches wide barely 60 seconds later, but after that both sides failed to find anything that remotely resembled a killer finish and the game closed scoreless.
The Seagulls’ play-off tilt has now been derailed worryingly thanks to five games without a win, with boss Oscar Garcia ruing missed chances.
He said:“We created opportunities, but we didn’t take them. That’s been one of our main prob- lems recently. In the first half I thought we were the better team, but we simply have to do better in front of goal.
“I am always positive and I will remain so. In the last two games the players have shown a lot of character.This is the way we have to go.This is the way forward until the end of the season.
“We showed at Blackburn that we can score goals. We have to get back to that. When the opposition had to play with one man less we put on an extra striker to try and create more chances.”