Blues assistant manager Martyn Pert isn’t a fan of the lengthy stoppage time which the authorities are adding to games with Town’s match at Sunderland on Sunday going on for almost another quarter of an hour.
Officials are being instructed to add on World Cup-style levels of time for injuries, goal celebrations and other stoppages as well as clamping down on time-wasting and dissent.
This led to the fourth official’s board showing 13 minutes at the end of the 90 at the Stadium of Light but with the actual time played stretching on beyond even that.
"I don’t really like it, if I’m honest,” Pert admitted. "When it came up 13, I was shocked. I was expecting it to be long because we had the injury to Janoi [Donacien] and you expect there to be some, and they’d already come in and told us that they’re going to add on every single second that they could.
"But 13, from the players’ perspective, we certainly haven’t thought about that in terms of training.
"You’re really adding games onto the players throughout the season if the games are going to be 10, 13 minutes longer. There was actually near enough 14 and a half minutes, I think, by my watch on Sunday. I don’t think it’s probably the right thing, to be honest.”