Jewell Backs Ref\'s Decision - Ipswich Town News
Town boss Paul Jewell felt referee Darren Deadman made the right decision to abandon the Blues’ pre-season friendly at Colchester due to the facial injury to U’s midfielder Andy Bond. The scoreless game had eight minutes remaining when it was prematurely ended.
Jewell said: "The referee says he’s in a bad way and the lad’s well-being is the main thing. It looked pretty serious and it was absolutely the right decision to call the game off.”
The Blues boss wasn’t overly impressed with his team’s display prior to the abandonment, but felt it was a useful exercise: "We’re frustrated the way we’ve performed in the last couple of games. We’ve got a few new players, Jay only came in and trained this morning for the first time.
"It’s been a bit of a frustration the last two games, we’ve haven’t played great, but fitness-wise - and that’s what it’s about — we’ve got something out of it.
"We know we’ve got to improve and we’re still trying to improve the squad before next weekend.”
What to read next:
EFL Statement on AbandonmentThe EFL has issued a statement relating to yesterday’s abandoned Championship game between the Blackburn Rovers and the Blues at Ewood Park.
McKenna: An Inevitable DecisionTown boss Kieran McKenna says it was an ‘inevitable decision’ for referee Stephen Martin to abandon the Blues’ match at Blackburn Rovers and expects to return to Ewood Park to restage the contest.
Blackburn Rovers 1-0 Ipswich Town - Match AbandonedTown look set to face a return trip to Blackburn Rovers later in the season after this afternoon’s game was abandoned after 80 minutes due to a waterlogged pitch with the home side 1-0 up and with the Blues down to 10 men. Jacob Greaves was shown a straight red card four minutes after the break for hauling down Yuki Ohashi, then Rovers skipper Todd Cantwell netted a penalty on 59, but the heavy rain had made the game increasingly farcical the longer it progressed and in the 80th minute referee Stephen Martin took the players off and then 25 minutes later abandoned it entirely.