Groundhog Day for Peterborough Sports as alleged official blunders cost them another game
It was Groundhog Day for Peterborough Sports boss Phil Brown who felt refereeing decisions cost his side during a 1-0 National League North defeat at Spennymoor Town on Saturday.
The city side slipped back into the bottom four after losing to a disputed second-half penalty, just minutes after seeing a ‘goal’ of their own from Marcel Oakley disallowed by a marginal offside decision. Brown was also angry after a midweek defeat at Macclesfield Town after two Sports players had been sent off
“I don’t want to sound like a moaning old manager, but I feel I need to bring it to someone’s attention,” Brown told Peterborough Community Radio after the Spennymoor game.
"I want to know why officials rather than players are deciding the outcome of matches? There are three teams on a pitch during every game and we have full respect for the third team, the officials, but the amount of times they make harsh decisions that decide results is quite alarming, and they are all going against us at the moment. If we have done something wrong they should tell us.
"We were popping the ball about in the opening 15 minutes of the second-half well enough to get in front and when it looked like we had I was on the pitch celebrating. I can normally see an offside decision coming from a mile away, but not on this occasion. Marcel’s run from full-back looked to be bang on the money and he finished the chance well, but apparently not. The flag went up.
"Down the other end the referee then gives a handball decision against us and they score the penalty and win the game. It deflated is and we didn’t play well after the goal, My substitutions didn’t help, but if our goal stands we get at least a point and we might even have won.
"They only got into our penalty about three times in the first-half and they didn’t threaten us at all, but we got nothing from the game again as a positive result was nicked from us by the men in black.”
Sports are next in action at National League North rivals Oxford City in a second round FA Trophy tie next Saturday (November 15). Brown is expected to field a strong side as he believes a third defeat in a row would damage confidence.