NEWPORT COUNTY AFC manager Graham Coughlan has requested an explanation from referees after his team was denied a “clearly legitimate” equaliser in their League Two defeat at Salford City.
The Ammies won 2-1 at Moor Lane, sending the Exiles to back-to-back defeats.
All three goals were scored in the first half, with a Matty Lund header and a Declan Drysdale own goal sandwiched by a beautiful finish by Bryn Morris, his first in County colours.
The Exiles, on the other hand, dominated the second half and believed they should have equalised on the hour when Will Evans scrambled the ball into the net.
The offside flag cut short the celebrations, as the forward was booked by referee Sebastian Stockbridge for his complaints.
“We scored a clearly valid second goal. “I don’t see what the problem is,” said Coughlan, who has been regularly angered by choices this season.
The referee and linesman decide to tell us that we were offside when we weren’t. I’m not sure where they’re coming from with that; that was a straightforward goal.
“We’ve looked back and can’t see where they’re coming from, so we’re fuming – decisions like that don’t belong in the game, and someone needs to look into it and explain it to us.”
“There are no excuses; you cannot deny that goal.” These guys are protected, but it must be explained since it is insufficient.”
“That’s a really costly error,” he went on. “We lost because of that, as well as our poor defence.”
“But these guys are protected by the hierarchy and you can’t do anything, you’ve just got to take your bitter pill.”
County earned just two points from five games in September, falling to loss for the second time under Coughlan.
The first time it happened was at Moor Lane last season, and the manager blamed shoddy defending as much as the authorities.
“We were excellent but I am stood here again talking about two basic, stupid, silly errors that cost us the game,” Coughlan remarked.
“Our overall performance was excellent, we were really good, but we have to look at the mistakes that led to the two goals that we conceded.”
“In my opinion, it was a 2-2 draw because of the disallowed goal, but I would have been furious because we were the better team and should have won by a landslide.”
“The takeover was a really positive week, and the performance was really strong at a tough place to come, but I can’t get past the disallowed goal and the two errors for their goals.”
“I’ll have another.”
County faced yet another setback as left-back Adam Lewis hobbled out in the first half with a muscle problem.It will be reviewed, but the Liverpool loanee is unlikely to be available for Tuesday’s game against Colchester at Rodney Parade.
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