ROWETT: REF’S ‘MISTAKE’ COST RAMS VICTORY
GARY Rowett accused referee Darren England of costing his side all three points after he turned down a late penalty claim and booked Cameron Jerome for diving.
Striker Jerome, making his Rams debut after a £1.5million move from Norwich in the week, appeared to be clipped in the box by Bristol City’s Aden Flint but England produced a yellow card for the striker rather than awarding a spot-kick. Jerome’s fall was exaggerated – but it should have been a penalty.
There was no VAR at Pride Park but the incident was shown on the big screen so all inside the stadium could see. The crowd booed England off and Rowett’s anger increased.
Rowett said: “I asked the referee afterwards and he said, ‘It looked to me like it wasn’t clear’. I understand that he has got to make a decision, but he has got it wrong. It has cost us a chance to win the game.
“But we had enough chances to not need the penalty. For big spells of the game, we caused City lots and lots of problems.”
The draw was greeted more warmly by Bristol City, who ended their run of five defeats in a row in all competitions, and kept them in the promotion hunt.
And they were aided by substitute goalkeeper Luke Steele coming off the bench to replace the injured Frank Fielding at halftime and producing a number of key saves to earn City a point.
George Thorne fired well over from just outside the box in the opening minutes and Flint had a glancing header saved by Scott Carson before City had two good chances in the space of 60 seconds.
The first came when a cross dropped invitingly to Josh Brownhill near the penalty spot but his shot was blocked by Curtis Davies, and when City attacked again a header found Jamie Paterson unmarked eight yards out at the back post but he blazed wildly over.
Derby responded with a 25yard free-kick from Matej Vydra that Fielding turned behind. The momentum was with the Rams and they had another chance when Richard Keogh’s closerange volley struck Fielding.
Steele replaced him at the break and was straight into the action when he saved City just after the hour when Russell’s persistence near the goalline saw the ball break to Tom Lawrence, whose rising drive from eight yards was turned over by the keeper.
Derby had another great chance when David Nugent played the ball inside to Vydra, who was unmarked 12 yards out but Steele denied him.
Then came the penalty incident in the 87th minute when sub Jerome felt he should have been given a spot-kick. City boss Lee Johnson thought Derby were hard done to not to have been awarded the penalty but was pleased with his players’ graft.
He said: “I’ll be honest, live, I did think it was a dive, and then I looked up to my left where the replay was on, which shouldn’t have been legal to do so by the rules. It could have started a riot, particularly in the technical area. But I did then think it looked like a penalty on the replay.
“It was a good effort from the players. We deserved it. We worked very hard. It is a good point.”