Smith lashes out after ‘scandalous’ call proves costly
DEAN SMITH blasted referee Matthew Donohue for the “scandalous” penalty call that denied Norwich the chance of a late winner.
Canaries manager Smith was convinced Wigan’s Tom Naylor should have seen red for leaving Max Aarons bloodied in the box.
But referee Donohue – who had a perfect view of Naylor’s 89th-minute tackle – ruled it wasn’t even a foul.
Smith fumed: “It was a scandalous decision and a scandalous tackle that should have resulted in a penalty and a red card.
“Max is OK but has a gaping wound in his shin – which tells you everything.”
Wigan boss Leam Richardson, who had seen Aarons cancel out James Mcclean’s Latics opener, insisted the official had been spot on – as he was with a string of other penalty appeals.
He said: “I didn’t think any of them were penalties – I thought they went down very easy.
“The referee managed the game very well. There must have been five or six shouts but our lads defended resolutely.”
Naylor certainly got the ball first but his followthrough sent Aarons flying and needing the medics.
Smith was convinced the midfielder had been reckless.
He said: “I certainly don’t think Max went over easy there, did he?
“It wasn’t an excuse when I played, if you went over the top of the ball you were off. It’s a long time ago since I was playing so I wouldn’t have got away with that either.
“I haven’t seen any of the others back but that was the one my analyst was keen to show me!”
Norwich dominated huge chunks of the match and fired off 19 shots in total. But they had only themselves to blame for Wigan’s 29th-minute opener.
The visitors had almost caught them out on the counter earlier on when
Tim Krul made a smart stop to deny Callum Lang after Will Keane had got the better of Jacob Sorensen.
And when Ben Gibson’s loose ball out from the back was seized by Keane, Norwich were helpless the moment Mcclean cantered through to slot coolly beyond Krul.
Gibson – playing because skipper Grant Hanley was banned – almost gifted Wigan a second early in the second half but Krul did well to deny Josh Magennis.
It looked like it wasn’t Norwich’s day when Dimitris Giannoulis caught his studs and had to be stretchered off on the hour.
But just a minute later Aarons netted a rare goal, lashing through keeper Ben Amos after good work from Teemu Pukki and Milot Rashica.
Amos tipped a Pukki curler on to the bar as Norwich threw everything at Wigan in search of their first win of the season.
But they defended stoutly and survived the big call when Aarons was hurt.
NORWICH: Krul 7; Aarons 8 (Sara 90,
3), Omobamidele 7, Gibson 5, Giannoulis 6 (Mccallum 60, 5); Sorensen 6 (Hernandez 60, 6); Rashica 7 (Sargent 77, 4), Nunez 6 (Sinani 77, 3), Mclean 7, Cantwell 6; Pukki 7
WIGAN: Amos 7; Darikwe 7, Kerr 7, Tilt 7, Bennett 7 (Aasgaard 90, 2); Naylor 7, Power 6; Lang 6 (Shinnie 90, 2), Keane 7 (Nyambe 90, 3), Mcclean 7; Magennis 6 (Humphrys 70, 4)
STAR MAN: Max Aarons. Salvaged a point to start the season.
REF: Matthew Donohue 6