‘We were robbed’ - Lyttle rues referee’s costly decisions
A frustrated Ger Lyttle hit out at officials following Friday night’s defeat to Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium.
Lyttle, his backroom team and players were left incensed that referee Neil Doyle did not halt play when Rhys McCabe went down injured following an apparent elbow to the head.
That allowed the Hoops to break forward, with Carr scoring the winner.
“We definitely didn’t deserve to lose the game. I said to the boys if we came in after the game with a draw I would have been disappointed because I think we dominated the game for large parts. I think, I have to choose my words properly, I think we’ve been robbed. That’s being diplomatic. You could argue that the foul is committed on Rhys McCabe that we still had time to defend the goal and yes we did, we were down in numbers and were overloaded in midfield when Rhys was down. It was a blatant foul on him, right beside the referee. It’s a head injury, the fourth official has told him that it’s a head injury and he ignores him. He doesn’t give it and we concede a goal.”
Lyttle and fourth official Rob Rogers had to be separated after a coming together, and the former Cliftonville boss claimed that Rogers put his head in his face.
“Then after that I’ve had an official, a fourth official, aggressively butt his head into my face because I told him what I thought of him in a polite way. I feel let down tonight. I feel let down by officials. I feel very proud of my team, the way they’ve played, the way they’ve worked hard. We’ve worked our socks off all week to take a game plan to Shamrock Rovers and again we’ve come away. You can say it was the same story last week and the week before, getting done by mistakes in our own half but I thought tonight we were very good.”
Again, the Bit o’Red manager was left livid when Doyle refused to award a penalty for what appeared to be a blatant handball from a David Cawley shot at goal.
The Rovers boss feels that decisions are not coming his way.
“I think so (should have had a penalty) but you’re not going to get that here. We’re Sligo Rovers, we don’t get anything. Dundalk get everything, Cork get everything, Shamrock Rovers get everything. Sligo Rovers get nothing.
“We don’t get the decisions. It’s gone beyond a joke. When you plan and work your socks off throughout the week as we have and every weekend we don’t get decisions. That’s the way it is. We’ve got to learn to win games because we can’t keep putting in great performances and coming away with nothing. I do think the tide will turn.”
Rovers dominated the first-half, and could easily have gone ahead if they had managed to put their chances away.
Lyttle admitted that the result was a suckerpunch considering he felt that it was his side’s best performance of the season so far, or at least one of them.
“I do think we should have been at least one or two up (at half-time). I thought we were really good tonight, potentially one of the best performances of the season in terms of how we played and how we set up. To come away with not only a defeat but nothing is a disgrace. I’m really disappointed. I’m a bit down for the players. We’ve got to continue to work hard and put in good performances.”
With the first series of games almost complete with the exception of the postponed game against St. Patrick’s Athletic, Lyttle still believes that his side can turn things around.
“I feel a win is coming. I can’t stress enough. Anyone watching that game tonight, even Shamrock Rovers fans, the manager, it was the same last week, would say that they got out of jail.”
Performances have not been all that bad in recent weeks, but Lyttle has been left annoyed by the fact that his side are not taking anything from these games.
But still, he remains positive and wants his players to continue to believe in themselves.
“That’s the frustrating thing for me as a manager and the players know it too, They’re frustrated that they’re putting in good performances and getting nothing out of it. We’ve got to keep believing. We looked a lot more solid defensively tonight. We have switched off for the goal, we;ve took our eye off the ball, but overall in the 94 minutes we have been the better team.”