McDonald hits out at refereeing decisions as 10-man Poppies suffer late collapse to lose at Leiston
Liam McDonald hit out at the performance of referee Alex Shipp as 10-man Kettering Town conceded three late goals to lose 4-1 at Leiston in the Pitching-In Southern League Premier Central on Saturday.
The Poppies boss was left fuming by the decision to send Blaine Rowe off for a second booking with the score at 1-1 with 10 minutes to play, and also felt a Leiston player should have been red-carded for striking Eddie Panter in the face in the first half.
Instead, it was Panter who was yellow carded for simulation.
Leiston had taken a 28th-minute lead through Ronnie Blois, but Will Glennon netted the equaliser from the penalty spot three minutes into the second half.
The match was then nip and tuck until Rowe was red-carded with 10 minutes to play, with the home side taking immediate advantage to go 2-1 up thought Willie Clemens on 82 minutes.
There were then two further strikes from Ben Fowkes, the second a penalty, in stoppage time to give the scoreline a somewhat flattering feel for the home side.
"I am not one for using referees as an excuse and I'm not, but I think in the first half their lad should have been sent off," said an unhappy McDonald, who was also cautioned after making his feelings known at the final whistle.
"Their lad has whacked Eddie Panter in the face and it's a red card, and then Panter gets a yellow card for it.
"Rowey then makes a good tackle, we are really close to it, he has kicked the ball, the lad's driving into the box, the ball has gone completely the opposite way. It is a great tackle, and the referee has sent him off.
"I said to the referee that it has changed the game massively, and the lad that has scored from the corner is Rowey's man.
"I said to the boys we need to learn from it, but it has happened so quickly from the sending off to the free-kick going over and then the corner coming in.
"When it went to 2-1 with us down to 10 men, we sort of half gave it a go for five minutes and then we have been done on the counter-attack.
"There's no point trying to finish the game at 2-1, we wanted to try and see if we could nick one, and it wasn't to be.
"It was difficult and I have said to the lads we have to learn from these things, and we have to learn fast.
"There are 17 games to go and we need to refocus, dissect what has happened, and move on."
The defeat means the Poppies are 12th in the Premier Central table, and still seven points adrift of the play-off places.
Kettering now have a free midweek before hosting fifth-from-bottom Alvechurch on Saturday (Jan 17).
Interview by Peter Short