Edinburgh’s fury at ref over penalty

6:00am Monday 11th February 2013 in Sport Photograph of the Author By Andrew Penman

ANGER: County boss Justin Edinburgh, left, vents his feelings after a late and controversial Tamworth penalty robbed his side of a victory on Parade ANGER: County boss Justin Edinburgh, left, vents his feelings after a late and controversial Tamworth penalty robbed his side of a victory on Parade

NEWPORT County AFC manager Justin Edinburgh launched a blistering attack on referee Kevin Johnson after his side were denied victory over Tamworth by a hotly-disputed stoppage-time penalty.

Edinburgh was left seething after Johnson pointed to the spot when Kyle Perry hit the deck after minimal contact from David Pipe and Byron Anthony.

Adam Cunnington sent substitute goalkeeper Alan Julian the wrong way to seal a point for the Lambs and land another hammer blow on County’s promotion hopes.

Edinburgh’s men were 2-0 up with 20 minutes remaining thanks to first half strikes from debutant Scott Donnelly and defender Byron Anthony.

But former England international Lee Hendrie pulled one back for the visitors via a big deflection on 73 minutes before the dramatic conclusion.

“It wasn’t a penalty,” said the furious Exiles boss. “I’ve watched it on the DVD several times and the explanation that the referee gave me doesn’t relate to what went on on the pitch.

“He said our player was all over their player and later he told me it was a coming together but it’s very easy to change your story after 30 minutes when you’ve had a chat with your two linesmen and your assessors.

“He changed his description of the incident from when I confronted him on the pitch to when I spoke to him in his dressing room.

“That tells me that he doesn’t know what he’s seen and he’s guessed. You can’t guess. And he’s guessed wrong and cost us the win.

“Some of his decisions second half were woeful.

“Not one Tamworth player called for a penalty,” he added.

“The boy is on the floor before the ball is even in the box. David Pipe and Byron Anthony go up for the ball and he falls over. There are no hands up, no coming together.

“He’s taken the victory away from us but I’m not really interested in what he says and I wouldn’t even want him to ring me because I know he’s wrong, but he’ll never admit that.”

County dropped to fifth place in the Blue Square Bet Premier and host sixth-place Mansfield Town, who won 8-1 on Saturday, at Rodney Parade tomorrow night.

“There are a lot of things that went against us but we’ve got to take the positives,” said Edinburgh.

“One goal was a deflection and the other’s a penalty that never was so I’m not going to criticise my players for that.

“We hope that it won’t cost us at the end of the season.”

Comments(21)

David Barron says...
6:48am Mon 11 Feb 13

I think Justin Edinburgh's words back in November at the Meet the Manager evening has come back now. The teams in the Blue Square Premier have become more professional but the referees have not.

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ohc says...
9:02am Mon 11 Feb 13

Perhaps JE needs to reflect on why the game wasnt tied up long before the penalty. Lets be honest, the promotion train has gone.

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llandaff says...
9:08am Mon 11 Feb 13

That's it JE blame everybody else. This sort of comment by the manager makes my blood boil. Instead of endlessly pawing over the DVD snippet of the disputed penalty and complaining about the ref, he should be looking at the rest of it and the capitulation of the team on 72 minutes. His anger should be directed towards the players and himself and his inability to fix the continually hopeless "defense". He has been constantly reminded about the defense problem on this blogg since the Yate game and has done little about it. It is time to wake up and get to grips before the embers of our promotion hopes are finally snuffed out!

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exrisca says...
9:32am Mon 11 Feb 13

According to the BBC website it was given for hand ball by Yakubu.

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rhinestine says...
10:58am Mon 11 Feb 13

UP THE COUNTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!

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kernowkid says...
11:03am Mon 11 Feb 13

Good times, bad times! Take the rough with the smooth! The league is still open and the playoffs are still a realistic target. After all the years of little hope of getting back into the Football League this season it is still a possibility. Keep the faith, stop knocking and get supporting - the Manager and the lads are doing their best!

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ohc says...
11:08am Mon 11 Feb 13

Thats the problem. Some of our "lads" are not good enough and goal keeping is a joke

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jetspotter says...
11:32am Mon 11 Feb 13

Come on Justin it's no good moaning over dubious penalties when the game should have been wrapped up at that stage. You've been in football long enough to know that and let's be honest we've had our fair share of dodgy decisions in our favour this season. The buck stops with you and your glaring inability to sort out a dodgy defense which has been creaking and groaning all season. Llandaff is quite correct in his remarks about this problem being highlighted time and again in this blag. When we were playing the neat attractive ball retaining football of what now seems a lifetime ago we were able to hide the defensive shortcomings but that has not been the case for a long time now. Yes I believe that we can still get promotion and yes I'm prepared to take the rough with the smooth but I'm fast losing confidence in a manager who seems to willfully ignore what Basil Fawlty would term the bl**din' obvious !!

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oranges says...
2:31pm Mon 11 Feb 13

i like everyone else want county to succeed and return to the football league.But after seeing county 2nd half performance against mediocre tamworth it again shows us that our defence was found out again and shipped 2 goals and dropped 2 points in the process.Tuesday nights match against in form mansfield might finally extinguish any chance of a play off berth.Our defence must be tightened up or tuesday against mansfield could be an embarresment.Cmon county please get it right or the only thing we might have achieved is that we wont be fighting a relegation battle

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Adrian Williams says...
6:15pm Mon 11 Feb 13

We were comfortable on Saturday up until Pidge went off. Just hope that he's fit a.s.a.p and common sense prevail and he's first choice for the rest of the season. I don't enjoy saying it, but Julian is a jinx

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Ranger12 says...
6:44pm Mon 11 Feb 13

Calm down everyone play off chances extinguished is really a big over reaction. We may we may not but one thing is certain with two games in hand and a league where any team can win on its day nothing will be decided anytime soon.
Other teams around us will drift in and out of form and it would be good to remember what the team that JE inherited was like. The progress is amazing and really beyond what could have been hoped for.
The defence is frustrating but the rotating midfield and confidence crisis with Julian doesn't help, hopefully Pidgely will be back tomorrow.
What is needed know is support that gets behind the team and turns up at RP to push them forward to the play offs at least,rather than take every opportunity to team and manager bash.

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oranges says...
7:44pm Mon 11 Feb 13

what i said ranger was that after tuesday our chances might be over.I like every supporter want county to do well.I attend matches wanting and hoping we win but its the inconsistency that has been evident for quite a while.Being 2-0 up and then losing our way was very poor and we need a tighter defence on tuesday to cope with a rampant mansfield

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llandaff says...
7:49pm Mon 11 Feb 13

Ranger12 wrote:
Calm down everyone play off chances extinguished is really a big over reaction. We may we may not but one thing is certain with two games in hand and a league where any team can win on its day nothing will be decided anytime soon.
Other teams around us will drift in and out of form and it would be good to remember what the team that JE inherited was like. The progress is amazing and really beyond what could have been hoped for.
The defence is frustrating but the rotating midfield and confidence crisis with Julian doesn't help, hopefully Pidgely will be back tomorrow.
What is needed know is support that gets behind the team and turns up at RP to push them forward to the play offs at least,rather than take every opportunity to team and manager bash.
I have remained calm since the 9th of October. I am supporting the team.
I am a loyal supporter (for over 50 years.) I do shout for them.
I do travel 40 miles to a match.
But 5 wins in 15 games is not amazing progress in any shape or form.
Two games in hand means nothing if games are jut thrown away like on Saturday. If I think the team and manager are not up to the mark then I will say so as I have done. It's time for this team to repay my loyal support and start getting some real results and if that is being hard on them then so be it. If they really want promotion then stick 5 on Mansfield and show they mean business. Effort, Effort, Effort! Nothing less.

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jetspotter says...
7:55pm Mon 11 Feb 13

Well I would love to agree with you 'Ranger' but is the progress amazing ? It certainly looked to be so several months ago but we are going backwards from that happy period.How much longer are we going to whistle in the dark and not admit that the current team has at least one major faultline in it ? The goalkeeper going off if really no excuse for the team panicking in such an inexcusable way. I hope you are right but I've yet to be convinced. Hopefully we will get a clearer picture after the Mansfield game which will probably make or break our season.

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emlynkide says...
8:16pm Mon 11 Feb 13

yes ranger, if we think back to this time last year when we were fighting for our lives, we;ve come a long way under j.e. its just that we had so much going for us in the first 17 or so games it took every body by supprise, and our expectations whent maybe to high,but now we are where we are, letts all get behind j.e. this div. can be won by any of six teams even now. onwards and upwards.

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Ranger12 says...
9:34pm Mon 11 Feb 13

llandaff wrote:
Ranger12 wrote:
Calm down everyone play off chances extinguished is really a big over reaction. We may we may not but one thing is certain with two games in hand and a league where any team can win on its day nothing will be decided anytime soon.
Other teams around us will drift in and out of form and it would be good to remember what the team that JE inherited was like. The progress is amazing and really beyond what could have been hoped for.
The defence is frustrating but the rotating midfield and confidence crisis with Julian doesn't help, hopefully Pidgely will be back tomorrow.
What is needed know is support that gets behind the team and turns up at RP to push them forward to the play offs at least,rather than take every opportunity to team and manager bash.
I have remained calm since the 9th of October. I am supporting the team.
I am a loyal supporter (for over 50 years.) I do shout for them.
I do travel 40 miles to a match.
But 5 wins in 15 games is not amazing progress in any shape or form.
Two games in hand means nothing if games are jut thrown away like on Saturday. If I think the team and manager are not up to the mark then I will say so as I have done. It's time for this team to repay my loyal support and start getting some real results and if that is being hard on them then so be it. If they really want promotion then stick 5 on Mansfield and show they mean business. Effort, Effort, Effort! Nothing less.
I don't quite have your 50 years but have over 40 and let's face it we have only seen two meaningful promotions (Ashurst and Holdsworth) and the number of seasons we have been in contention at the top of a national league table have been rare.
So expectations have been raised after an excellent start and we are still in contention so enjoy it at the end of last season / beginning of this I think a lot of supporters would have taken the position we currently find ourselves in.
The defence need a bit of luck to try and keep a clean sheet and build confidence but overall the team are doing well and the team are certainly performing better than the sum of the parts, remember the majority of our team were unwanted and could not get a game with their previous employers which must be a credit to JE

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jetspotter says...
11:58pm Mon 11 Feb 13

Some fair comments 'Ranger' and you are right to cite perhaps over optimistic expectations as a major cause for the frustration and bewilderment many of us are feeling. Our difficulty is in trying to understand the alarming drop in the standard of play we have seen over recent months after the 'highs' of the early season. Perhaps,as someone pointed out some time ago,it might be that the current heavier pitches are undermining the teams attempt to play attractive, passing football or it may be that the all important confidence factor has simply gone a.w.o.l. It's difficult to say and yes it is easy to criticize and I'm sure the manager and team are doing their best.Whatever the reason behind the current slump we can only hope that it is addressed with speedy determination and we get back to winning ways as soon as possible. We are,after all, County fans through and through and we are all after the same rainbow's end. Hmm, sounds like the cue for a song....!!

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Tony Soprano says...
1:06pm Tue 12 Feb 13

That's it JE blame everybody else. This sort of comment by the manager makes my blood boil. Instead of endlessly pawing over the DVD snippet of the disputed penalty and complaining about the ref, he should be looking at the rest of it and the capitulation of the team on 72 minutes. His anger should be directed towards the players and himself and his inability to fix the continually hopeless "defense". He has been constantly reminded about the defense problem on this blogg since the Yate game and has done little about it. It is time to wake up and get to grips before the embers of our promotion hopes are finally snuffed out!

Comments like this make my blood boil, we were comfortable at 2-0, no keeper in the world would have saved Hendrie's goal, it took a wicked deflection & Julian could do nothing about it, as for the penalty, only the inept ref can explain that one, ok it wasn't the best game in the world but even Man Utd " win ugly " from time to time.

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jetspotter says...
1:24pm Tue 12 Feb 13

Don't mind 'winning ugly' Tony but we didn't did we ?!! Seriously at 2-0 up with twenty minutes to go against a poor team it should have been all over bar the gloating. This sort of thing has happened too often this season for it to be coincidence. It really shouldn't come down to a disputed penalty in the dying moments. We have to work at closing games down when we find ourselves in such a strong position. We are after all talking about a team with promotion ambitions here. Anyway let's finally get our season back on track this evening with a commanding performance.

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MazYork says...
10:41pm Wed 13 Feb 13

Well said Ranger! this site is full of doom merchants and not really good supporters in my view!

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MazYork says...
10:47pm Wed 13 Feb 13

Just read another of your posts Ranger and totally agree with you. When you go back to the 60's and having to apply for re-election year after year, I think JE isn't doing to bad a job!

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