Dickov sees red over Morais sending-off

FRUSTRATION . . . Paul Dickov queries a decision.

REFEREE Darren Drysdale came under heavy fire from Athletic manager Paul Dickov for a number of crucial decisions that went against his team... and claimed that Walsall’s players and management were in accord with his bafflement.

Athletic were reduced by one as a result of the red card surprisingly handed to Filipe Morais by Drysdale for a tackle from behind on midfielder Jordan Cook.

The sending-off aside, the 40-year-old Lincolnshire official attracted Dickov’s ire for the mysterious award of a free-kick which led to Tom Williams’ freak opening goal.

Dickov felt that Warren Feeney’s first-half strike, disallowed for offside after the striker’s initial header had bounced off the crossbar, should have stood and also believed that Jon Macken handled the ball with both hands inside the penalty area after the break.

But it was the dismissal of Morais – who poked his head into the press room to say “it was never a red, make sure you write that” – which really had the Athletic manager fuming.

“Filly tackled him and got the ball,” he said of the 70th-minute incident. “Yet again, their management and the fourth official didn’t know why they sent him off.

“Even with their player (Cook) who came to the touchline, I asked him ‘was it a foul?’

“He said ‘he got the ball and caught me a little bit’.

“I asked him if he thought it was a sending-off and he said ‘are you winding me up? Has he sent him off for that?’”

As for that crucial free-kick award given against Jason Lowe, Dickov said he didn’t know why Drysdale blew his whistle.

“Nobody in the ground knows and I don’t think the referee and the linesmen know,” he said.

As for the performance of his side, Dickov said: “We were nowhere near our best. Our decision-making wasn’t good and we resorted to knocking long balls, which is something I have never asked them to do.”