Dodgy Ref, Red Cards and No Goals For Town!

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 10/02/2002

GRIMSBY Town lost 2-0 to Watford today at Vicarage Road and another "dodgy" refereeing decision left manager Paul Groves more than a little unhappy. Robert Taylor was taken off injured and Gallimore shown the red card. In all, not a good day for the Mariners

Watford's second goal in the 47th-minute scored by Gifton Noel-Williams after both he and Town goalkeeper Danny Coyne had stopped playing because of a linesman's offside flag against Patrick Blondeau.

The referee however failed to blow the whistle and instead waved play on Noel-Williams turned the ball into the net and Town went 2-0 down.

Shortly after Tony Gallimore, made a late tackle on-loan midfielder Jermaine Pennant, who retaliated, and both players were sent off.

"I had a word with the referee very briefly after the game and he explained his decisions to me. said Groves. I have a view of the sending off but possibly it would not be wise for me to state it. We have to learn from this sort of thing."

"I did feel that all the players stopped just before Watford scored their second goal because the linesman had raised his flag."

"However, even though the Watford player had stopped they suddenly realised the referee had not blown. Technically you should play until you hear the whistle and I agreed that 99 times out of 100 the whistle would have been blown."

"I'm very disappointed and so are the players, particularly in the way in which we lost. I thought the players showed good spirit and even after the second goal we went forward and created chances."

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