Kevin Wilkin has his say on AFC Telford refereeing
After their third refereeing controversy in three games, AFC Telford United boss Kevin Wilkin has become the latest person to question the quality of officiating throughout the country.
Having had centre back Orrin Pendley sent off for denying a goal scoring opportunity, Telford looked to have an opportunity to win the game late on when Ola Lawal was sent through on goal.
However, the Irish forward was flagged offside – a decision that officials admitted to the club after the game was incorrect.
“It’s hard enough to beat teams in this league without the big decisions going against you, and in the last three games we’ve had three massive decisions not go our way,” Wilkin revealed. “Two of those could prove to be really costly for us, and I know people will argue that these things even out but I’m not so sure I agree with that.”
The Bucks boss added: “That’s now three games back to back, and they’re not even contentious decisions really, they’re clear and obvious.
“It’s not an easy job to do and I’ll be the first to say that, but we’re not talking about difficult decisions here, we’re talking about fairly clear and obvious errors.
“On two of the three occasions where we’ve asked for a review of the situation it’s come back to us that the officials have held their hands up and acknowledged they’ve made big errors.
“That’s no real comfort, but I’d take it back a step further and ask whether referees are being fast tracked into roles that they aren’t quite ready for just yet.
“I’ve got no qualms (with Pendley’s red card), that’s not what I’m moaning about.
“What I am moaning about is that on too many occasions there are moments going against us that are going to prove to be quite costly.
“If it happened once okay, but this has happened in each of our last three games.”
