Carlisle United boss blasts officials in Lincoln City draw
Paul Simpson aimed a broadside at the officials who he felt “completely spoiled” an otherwise positive day for Carlisle United at Lincoln City.
The Blues’ well-earned 1-1 draw at the LNER Stadium saw the Cumbrians extend their League One unbeaten run in League One to three games.
But manager Simpson could not hide his fury at the performance of referee Tom Neild and one of his assistants.
United’s boss felt the Cumbrians were denied a “stonewall” penalty which even Lincoln’s hierarchy admitted should have been awarded.
The Blues boss felt other decisions were perplexing and Simpson believed the officiating tarnished the game.
He said Nield – who previously refereed United in May’s League Two play-off final at Wembley – and his fellow official should be “embarrassed” when they watch back moments such as the 44th-minute flashpoint when Sean Maguire appeared to be fouled just inside the box by Paudie O’Connor, only for the ref to wave away Carlisle’s appeals.
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“It’s really hard to stand [here] and talk about a game that has been completely spoiled by two people not wearing the football kits of Lincoln or Carlisle United,” said Simpson.
“Some of the decisions are absolutely incredible.
“There’s a penalty in the first half, their director of football has said to me coming off the pitch that it’s an absolute stonewall penalty.
“And it is, I don’t get it.
“Then Joe Garner gets smashed trying to make a run in to the box and because he appeals, he gets a yellow card.
“The referee is laughing with me before the game about what a ridiculous yellow card Joe Garner picked up for celebrating with the fans when he scored against Shrewsbury the other week…well, who’s laughing now?
“I don’t want to talk about his performance, I’ll get myself in trouble again. It spoiled the game.
“We should have had an opportunity to be 2-0 up and it’s been taken away from us.”
Simpson said there was another incident when Owen Moxon was “headbutted as he flicks it on, and they said it’s just normal contact.
United extended their unbeaten run to three league games (Image: Barbara Abbott)
“Well, I don’t know if headbutting’s ever been allowed in games, certainly not in 18-yard boxes. There were some strange decisions,” he added.
While Simpson said he was “proud” of his side’s performance, he went on to say he hopes the officials reflect further on their own display.
On the penalty frustration, he added: “We can’t do anything about it.
“I haven’t actually seen it but somebody told me [Stevenage boss] Steve Evans was chirping on that he got an apology from the [refereeing body] PGMOL that our [first] goal [in last weekend’s 2-2 draw] was offside.
“I’d love to see their video they’ve got because I’ve seen every video that we’ve had available to us and nobody can tell whether Sean is offside.
“Maybe there might be an apology coming through the post to us this week, but I don’t actually care. I just hope they look at it and understand and realise.
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“I had contact from Mike Jones [refereeing national group director] after the Accrington game that you don’t need to go broadcasting it. We all ask questions, we all get the answer, ‘Oh yeah, you were right about this, we should have done this, should have done that’.
“You want it happening in games, you want them to be able to make correct decisions in game that really affect it.
“That would have affected giving us an opportunity to go 2-0 up. I don’t think he did it on purpose, he didn’t make a mistake on purpose, but they’re big calls and we get judged on big decisions, we get judged on results, and officials should also get judged on decisions.
“I hope when they look at it they realise they’ve made a mistake and learn from it.”
Simpson was more complimentary about his own side’s performance after a first United goal for Luke Plange was cancelled out by Ethan Hamilton.
Carlisle had the better of the first half, with Maguire outstanding, before Lincoln came back into things.
United, who moved up a place to 18th, could still have won it through a good Owen Moxon chance, while they defended their lines well against Mark Kennedy’s Imps.
“I thought they put a hell of a shift in,” said Simpson of his players.
“I thought we got onto second balls, ran in behind them and caused them problems…there are some good signs, it’s just disappointing we’ve only taken one point.
“I thought we were excellent, from start to finish. There were different parts of football [in our game] – we started the game well, on the front foot, played with a good discipline and I thought we played some really good football.
“We also had to defend for our lives at times. I think the 600-odd supporters who made the journey have seen we’ve put in a real good shift against a team who’ve had two 3-0 victories at home and we’ve caused them a lot of problems that we probably should have taken three points from.”
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