Blundering refs are killing us – Roo
WAYNE Rooney wants more help from referees if he is going to win his big fight and keep Derby in the Championship.
The Rams got a penalty equaliser against Coventry, but Rooney says refs have got to stop blundering.
Rooney was scathing about the Professional Game Match Officals Limited answer this week to his complaints about Andy Davies’ refereeing of Derby’s game at Cardiff at the start of the month.
Tom Lawrence’s 66thminute pen for a foul on him by Ben Sheaf gained Derby a point in their survival fight.
But raging Rooney reckons the Rams would be much better off if refs were better.
“I think the referee had to give us one penalty out of the three we should have had today,” said Rooney.
“After the game I told the referee it wasn’t good enough. The referee might walk off the pitch and think ‘I’ve done a good job. I’ve given a penalty’. But actually there were two clear penalties that he missed.
“We got emails back yesterday and apparently Festy Ebosele is too big and strong to go down in the Cardiff match.
“There was contact on Ebosele, but he was a strong lad, he shouldn’t have gone down, they say.
“Curtis Davies got thrown to the floor in that game and they scored. He’s a strong lad and he should be able to handle himself we were told.
“That’s not good enough. How long ago was the Cardiff game and we were waiting for a reply? It doesn’t change the result does it?”
Cardiff won with Uche Ikpeazu’s goal following the Davies incident, but for a club that’s gone bust, Rooney is putting up a great fight.
If he is going to make Derby safe, at least on the pitch, despite a 21-point deduction, it’s likely to be at home because they can’t win away.
In their last nine home games, they have won six and drawn two.
The Rams had to come back from a terrific 28th-minute Coventry goal to save this one.
Callum O’Hare and Matty Godden cut open Derby, O’Hare’s headed pass helping Godden to a terrific shot into the corner.
Coventry are struggling themselves through Covid and injuries, but their patchedup defence held out until ref Darren Bond gave the pen and captain Lawrence calmly equalised.
Substitute Louie Sibley hit a post for Derby in the last seconds, but before that Coventry sub, Swedish international Viktor Gyokeres, had two chances, missing wildly in the 70th minute and Ryan Allsop saving from him 11 minutes later.
“For us, our squad is getting really stretched and this was a good point,” said Coventry manager Mark Robins.
The Sky Blues are feeling the strain with one win in six and Robins said: “The game could have gone either way.
“But losing our whole back line over the last week or so, we have picked up a good point.”