NO FINGER OF BLAME FOR GARY
GARY Johnson has pleaded innocence after being sent to the stand during Cheltenham Town’s FA Cup first round defeat by National League Maidstone United.
A woeful first-half display saw the Robins trailing 3-0 at Whaddon Road and despite an improvement after the break, they left themselves with far too much to do.
Both sides had a man dismissed – Cheltenham’s Kevin Dawson and the Stones’ Delano Sam-Yorke earning their marching orders – and Johnson himself was asked to leave the touchline after gesturing towards the referee’s assistant but he said referee Kevin Johnson misinterpreted his hand signals.
“I don’t have any complaints about Kevin Dawson’s red card because he was late,” Johnson said.
“But for my sending off, I certainly did not disrespect the officials and I hope video evidence shows that.
“The referee misinterpreted something I did with my hands and if the linesman had made three mistakes instead of two, I wouldn’t have been asked to sit in the stand.
“I have never stuck two fingers up at anyone – not even in the street – and certainly not in my football career.
“The linesman knows what I said and if the referee combines that with what he saw, he’ll certainly know it wasn’t the gesture he initially thought it was.”
Maidstone took the lead through Sam-Yorke, who headed in a cross from Seth Nana Twumasi in the 20th minute.
Joe Pigott added the second less than a minute later, reaching a pass from Twumasi and capitalising on some weak defending from Taylor Moore.
Zavon Hines scored the third with a deft finish after Jai Reason’s superb ball and Cheltenham were then booed off at the interval.
They pulled one back through Dawson’s header in the 53rd minute from Mo Eisa’s cross but any hopes of a comeback were ended by Sam-Yorke’s second a minute later to make it 4-1.
The two-goal Stones man was dismissed for a challenge on Eisa in the 57th minute and Alex Finney turned the ball into his own net after Brian Graham’s header was saved in the 61st minute to make it 4-2.
Dawson was then sent off for a lunge at goalkeeper Lee Worgan in the 80th minute and Worgan made a fine stop to deny Eisa with his foot as Maidstone deservedly progressed.
“I am absolutely delighted to be in the hat,” said their manager Jay Saunders.
“No disrespect to Cheltenham but we fancied our chances of causing an upset and we did a lot of work on where we felt we could hurt them. “The lads carried it out and we were excellent, especially in the first half.”