Saturday’s encounter with Walsall was a very physical affair, with both teams cancelling each other out with their determined approach.
But there were a couple of instances that could easily have gone the way of the Blues when tugging and pulling appeared to stop what would have become very good chances.
“There was a fir bit of grappling at set pieces and it’s a part of the game that infuriates me,” manager Paul Simpson said. “We’re making a conscious effort to make sure we don’t get involved in that sort of thing when we’re in attacking areas, because we keep being told that our player and theirs are both at it.
“When they are both at it, the referee doesn’t give anything. I thought when Ryan Edmondson went through in the first half, I thought he was pulled back. Again I was told by the fourth official that they were both at it.
“They told me there was minimal contact on Jack Armer, but for me that’s a foul. It isn’t a brave decision from him, because if he gives it, he has to send the lad off.
“The fourth told me that it wasn’t a red card anyway, but my understanding was that he was through on goal and he was brought down.
“I’m not going to blame the referee though because the fact is we didn’t do enough to win that game. It really is as simple as that. It wasn’t the referee’s fault, I have my opinion of his performance, and that isn’t the reason we didn’t get the win.”
“We had some excellent deliveries from Owen Moxon and looking at them you can see we’ve tried to make the runs but they’ve blocked and got their arms on players,” he added. “I’ve got to say it’s a really frustrating part of the game for me, the way referees stop the game when there’s grappling going on and players getting fouled, they stop the game to warn them.
“I keep saying why don’t they just let the delivery come in and give a penalty? Because it will stop it. But they don’t.
“If you want to be cynical you can blame officials, or on the other hand you can compliment teams for the way they defend those situations and stop the players from making their movement.”
