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Jim: Ref to Review Card
Jim: Ref to Review Card
Saturday, 20th Jan 2007 19:15

Town boss Jim Magilton revealed that referee Graham Laws has agreed to review the incident in which David Wright was red-carded late on in the Blues' 3-2 victory over Colchester United. Wright was dismissed for handball on the goalline as he made his home debut.

The injury time penalty decision was one of a number of controversial decisions made by referee Laws and his linesmen, the most significant of which was the failure to award Town a first-half goal, which led directly to Colchester taking the lead.

Magilton says that Billy Clarke's shot crossed the line off defender Garry Richards: "It was our first bit of quality in the game and I think the ball was over the line.

"Then we switched off and conceded a poor goal defensively that jolted us. We showed character to come back and on the day just edged it."

The Town manager felt the injury time sending off was undeserved: "It was a very harsh decision in the dying embers of the game.

"He could not get out of the way and I'm not sure if it was handball anyway. The ball was struck at him from a very short distance and it hit him on the shoulder. No one could have got out of the way, it would have been impossible.

"But the referee has agreed to look at the incident again and we will take it from there."

Wright himself says the ball didn't strike his hand: "The ball hit me on the shoulder and I had no chance to get out of the way either.

"If it was my lower arm then fair enough, but it was my shoulder and it certainly wasn't deliberate."

Former Blue and Colchester manager Geraint Williams conceded that Town were worthy of their win: "On balance of play Ipswich deserved to edge it. We have no excuses.

"To be fair, I think Ipswich were more of a threat in the first half and we were fortunate to be level at the interval.

"It was disappointing to concede a goal from a corner. In fact we could have done better with all three goals we conceded."

Williams says he wouldn't be surprised if video evidence shows that Clarke's ‘goal' should have counted: "If they say it was over the line I won't disagree with them.

"We just played to the whistle and went up the other end and scored. I don't like to talk about referring decisions [to a video replay] because it takes away from the football. All we can do is prepare well and do our best on a Saturday.

"I thought Ipswich looked lively but their third goal stemmed from a misplaced pass. We got caught on the break by the pace of Danny Haynes."


Photo: Action Images



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