Town boss Paul Jewell said he felt that his side had been robbed after the Blues’ 2-2 draw at Cardiff, a highly contentious penalty giving the Bluebirds their second goal.

After the game, Jewell explained to quizzical reporters how he saw the incident in which the spotkick was awarded by referee Dean Whitestone: “The way I see it, the linesman gave a corner and the referee didn’t give anything.

“Then after a mass of confusion, after the penalty shouts from Cardiff players and supporters, he points to the spot. Don’t ask me how he came to that decision, but he did.

“It was handball against Carlos Edwards, apparently. Rob Earnshaw’s kicked it up against Carlos Edwards, who is about a yard from him. It’s a ridiculous decision, but there you go.”

The Blues boss says his side ought to have sealed the win prior to the spotkick when Jason Scotland was thwarted by Cardiff keeper David Marshall: “After they got the equaliser the crowd has lifted them.

“At 2-1 we should have been 3-1 up. I think they were moaning a bit about our second goal but the linesman put his flag up just to let the referee that the ball had gone over the line, not for offside. There wasn’t even a question of offside.

“I think that riled the crowd a little bit and I just thought at times throughout the game the referee looked a little bit out of his depth.”

Jewell spoke to the official on the pitch at the whistle and revealed what he had said: “Make sure you get your story straight when I come and see you because I know what will happen.

“Referees have got a very difficult job. I have bad days, players have bad days but when they make a decision, not even an instant decision, they’ve had time to think about it and confer, how they get to a penalty from where they are and what they’ve given at first, is beyond me.

“If they had scored a great goal, you take your hat off to them, but we feel a little robbed today because I felt for long periods we were the better team.”

The Town manager said he hadn’t decided whether to talk further about the decision with the referee: “I don’t know what good it will do really. They’ve got difficult jobs to do. He looks a young lad, I don’t know what his history is.

“I think he’s got it wrong and I don’t even see how he’s got it wrong. If someone gets a penalty because someone takes a dive, I can see that, even if he’s got it wrong. I can’t see where that decision’s come from.

“There was a mass of confusion for our goal, then again just before he gave the penalty there was an incident where we thought it was a goalkick and they thought it was a corner and it took an age to get to a decision. It was like Fred Karno’s.”

Jewell was pleased with his side up to the penalty: “Cardiff like to get the ball up to the big lad up front [Rudy Gestede] and we had to try and master that.

“I felt at times he won too many headers but when we got the ball down and passed it we looked a good outfit. We had to dig in in the last 15 minutes.

“The game had a bit of a bitty start, it wasn’t great. But once we got the goal, we grew in confidence, we passed the ball and started to get the full-backs forward. They changed their shape which is a compliment to us again, but I’m sat here a little bit irked that we haven’t got three points.”

The Blues boss says his side suffered no injuries: “One or two are tired, Michael Chopra and Jason Scotland both tired but other than that no, and we kick on again in the morning.”

Cardiff manager Malky Mackay perhaps unsurprisingly saw the penalty differently, although he felt a draw was probably fair: “I think that overall we’re probably both looking at it saying we’re disappointed not to win but probably in the face of it all it looks like a point was probably the right result considering the ebb and flow of the game with both teams dominant at certain periods of the game.

“What’s happened [on the penalty] is Robert Earnshaw’s kept it in and it’s flicked off the outstretched hand of Carlos Edwards. The ball was going to Rudy Gestede and it’s changed direction.

“It certainly wasn’t his hand down by his side, his hand was up in the air when it changed direction. I thought it was a penalty.”

Nevertheless, he agreed that referee Whitestone and his assistants weren’t particularly clear in their intentions during several of the game’s major incidents: “There was probably a lack of clarity from the officials in terms of how they came to the decision, a bit like their second goal when there was a lack of clarity about why the linesman put his flag up rather than running to the halfway line.

“In the end, both decisions were correct, theirs was a goal and ours was a penalty. I also felt that five minutes after our penalty we should have had a penalty when Kevin McNaughton was bundled down in the box.

“Had there not been the decision-making process five minutes beforehand and the amount of players surrounding them, a decision would have been taken.”

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

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