Peterborough Sports manager felt the referee was the opposition's best player at Macclesfield Town
Peterborough Sports boss Phil Brown claims the match referee was Macclesfield Town’s best player in a National League North clash on Tuesday night.
Sports lost the game 3-1 after suffering two straight red cards in the latter stages, to central defender Ashton Fox and to substitute Mark Jones.
Brown was astonished by the Fox red card, but understood the second one for Jones, even if it did follow what the manager felt was an appalling decision by the referee.
Sports will be appealing the decision ro send off former Peterborough United defender Fox. Sports were 2-1 down playing 11 v 11, but still in the game as they sought a third straight win after the Fox dismissal.
"I don’t want to sit here after the bemoaning the referee, but the contribution to the opposition winning the game was immense, that’s all I can say,” Brown told Peterborough Community Radio. “I am not seeing the first red card at all. I don’t even think it was a foul and yet he’s seen fit to show a red card. He’s created a situation for himself.
"We still had a say at 2-1 down when Luca Miller is fouled by not one or two, but three of their players. We don’t get a free kick and they go and put the ball in our net. If the referee has then been abused than the second red card is understandable, but their best player was the referee. It’s a bit harsh, but it’s so true.
"I will have to contest the first red card. We should win the appeal.”
Sports suffered a shock red card the previous Tuesday when Connor Wood was dismissed at Southport despite claiming he only called the referee ‘a sausage.’ That appeal failed.
Despite the defeat, and wins for three of the four teams below them, Sports stayed out of the relegation zone ahead of a trip to Spennymoor on Saturday. Sam McLintock shot Sports in front early in the game, but Macclesfield equalised in first-half added time before dominating the second half.
"Macclesfield are a decent side who play good football,” Brown admitted. “But we coped well until they scored with the last kick of the first-half. In the second-half we didn’t use a very wide pitch as efficiently as they did. It was still hard to take because of the way the referee behaved.
"We will dust ourselves down though. We will train on Thursday and be ready for another big game on Saturday. We won two games in a row, but it didn’t change much. This is going to a long process. It will take a lot of very hard work for a very long time. First of all we must find a clean sheet from somewhere.”
Sports last kept a clean sheet on August 30, nine games ago.