CALAMITY KEWELL
Notts County boss sees red and is stuffed on his debut
Exeter City 5 Notts County 1
HARRY KEWELL’S disastrous debut as Notts County boss saw him sent off and his team lose 5-1.
The former Leeds and Liverpool star took over last week, and the 39-year-old Aussie will want to forget his first game with County, who are bottom of League Two. He was sent off for arguing with the ref.
Kewell admitted: “The anger set in when another mistake saw us 3-1 down. Then there was a cross in the box and it was a ‘does it hit his hand, or does it not?’ The ref says no, and Exeter then go and score a goal.
“That is when I get my marching orders. I said ‘well done’ to the ref – you can see one in the far corner, but not one straight in front of you.”
HARRY KEWELL was sent off for protesting about a handball in his first game in charge of Notts County.
And it went from bad to worse for the bottom-of-the-table Magpies who ended up conceding five at Exeter.
Braces from Pierce Sweeney and Jayden Stockley and Aaron Martin’s maiden goal secured Exeter’s win, with Enzo Boldewijn notching for County.
Although Kewell thought the red card was harsh, he had no complaints with the result as his side were comprehensively beaten by the Grecians, who could have won by a bigger margin.
“We went in at 2-1 and it was game on,” Kewell said (below). “I was confident we were going to get something out of the game. But anther set-piece and a mistake and we are 3-1 down. That is when the anger kicked on.
“I questioned the handball and you have to change a few other things because we are chasing the game.
“The eagle-eyed referee sees another handball gives it them and they miss it so we are still in it.
“Then there was a cross in the box and it was one of those does it hit his hand, or does it not? The referee says no, we are complaining, they go up the other end and score a goal.
“That was disappointing and that is when I get my marching orders. I said ‘well done’ to the referee; I said you can see one in the far corner but not one straight in front of you.
“Everyone wants to win, I am a winner. We had to try things and we had to be vulnerable at the back to get players in the box.”
Exeter boss Matt Taylor was understandably delighted with his side’s performance and the result.
“We were good today, but we won’t get carried away,” he said.
“A clean sheet would have been nice as well, but there was a real purpose about us. A real intent.
“We played on the front foot and ran them into the ground, we created countless chances and we could have even scored a few more.
“The lads have earned their first couple of days off this season.”