Boro boss hits out at referee after home defeat to Blackpool
Neil Warnock was critical of the referee after seeing his Middlesbrough side beaten 2-1 at home to Blackpool.
Warnockwasannoyedwith referee David Webb for awarding the visitors a free-kick that led to the equaliser, as well as how his side ended up losing.
Meanwhile, Neil Critchley has saluted his Blackpool players for emerging from Middlesbrough with a second win inside eight days in the Sky Bet Championship.
The Seasiders had to wait for their first three points following promotion but confidence is clearly growing after a strong second half showing turned things around, giving them a 2-1 win on Teesside.
Marvin Ekpiteta’s fine touch and turn from Richard Keogh’s delivery led to the defender cancelling out Marcus Tavernier’s eighth-minute opener in the 63rd minute.
And when Middlesbrough centre-back Grant Hall headed Luke Garbutt’s corner into his own net with 12 minutes remaining Blackpool had secured a second win of the season to avoid a slip into the relegation zone.
Blackpool boss Critchley, whofeltTavernier’sgoalshould not have stood because Dael Fry was offside in the buildup,said:“Twowinsinthreehas beenagoodweek.Ithoughtwe were fantastic today.
“To be 1-0 down early, against a strong team like Middlesbrough, with the crowd behind them, we could have gone under but we didn’t. We
tried to take the game to them, which is difficult.
“Itwas(an)unexpectedgoal fromMarvin.Ihavetoldhimhe is playing up front next week. We took a short free-kick, it worked out well and I didn’t knowwhattheyweredoing.He showed strength, swivelled on a sixpence and finished well.
“We felt the first goal was offside.Youseehowwedefend, we try to stay out (of ) the box, we felt he was in an offside position. He said he didn’t touch it in the middle of box, we had a complaint about that. Neil Warnock will have had complaints too, we both do. That’s by the by.”
Warnockwasannoyedwith referee David Webb for awarding the visitors a free-kick that led to the equaliser.
HefeltOnelHernandezhad beenfouledbutitwenttheother way with Webb seeing an infringement by Tavernier.
Warnock, whose side have dropped to 16th and lost Anfernee Dijksteel with a hamstringproblem,said:“Itwasn’t afoul,simpleasthat.Thereferee was pretty consistent in not giving fouls but that was not a foul in a million years.
“Having said that, you still have to defend the goal. I think the free-kick is played and nobody runs across to it, I think it was Isaiah Jones. The cross then comes in and Dael gets turned, I am disappointed to concede like that.
“I am disappointed we haven’t won the game. That’s life. Things happen. We could have been out of sight by halftime, the injury to Dijksteel, not having a full-back on the bench, cost us. I thought we were comfortable before that.
“I thought it was a good game. I thought we are a little short on numbers. We can’t get it going consistently, we don’t have that ruthless streak at times. I can’t fault them effort-wise, or for their technicalability,butit’saboutfinding that little bit extra. Until we get clean sheets we won’t get where we want to be. To lose a game from a corner kick is comical really.”