Fleetwood unhappy with referee display after sharing points with Crewe

Posted Sunday, December 27, 2020 by PA

Fleetwood assistant manager Clint Hill was unhappy with the performance of referee Tom Nield after a controversial equaliser saw his side held to a 1-1 draw by Crewe.

Mikael Mandron fired in Crewe’s leveller to cancel out Wes Burns’ opener amid appeals from the Cod Army’s players over a possible handball in the build-up.

Fleetwood felt even more aggrieved after they also had a first-half finish from Charlie Mulgrew chalked out for offside.

Town boss Joey Barton had lost his voice protesting after the final whistle and Hill, who was sent out out for press duties in his place, said: “It’s disappointing as both benches should be talking about football, but we’re talking about a refereeing performance which was pretty poor. He (Nield) didn’t have a good game.

“For Crewe’s equaliser he missed three decisions, including a foul on Charlie Mulgrew and a handball. We’re not too happy with that.

“Crewe are a good team and they look to pull you all over the pitch, so we were compact and we’d probably done enough to see the game out but decisions have gone against us today.”

Both sides had chances in a goalless first half as Burns headed against the Crewe post while, at the other end, Mulgrew cleared a Charlie Kirk effort off the line.

The Railwaymen then started the second period strongly, but some reckless defending allowed Burns to sneak an opener for Fleetwood.

Omar Beckles tried shielding the ball back to his keeper Will Jaaskelainen, but Burns nipped in behind him and prodded home after 49 minutes.

Neild then dismissed appeals for handball as Mandron finished from 10 yards, profiting from a knockdown from Beckles on the end of a Harry Pickering delivery for Crewe’s 61st-minute equaliser.

Hill said: “We put Wes back on the frontline to use his pace. He has done fantastically well for us and he can do a job wherever we play him. That decision was rewarded with a goal.

“We had a couple of half chances and while Crewe put some pressure on the lads were doing very well, but we got undone by a poor performance from the referee.”

Crewe boss Dave Artell felt the draw was a fair result, although his side looked more likely to grab a winner in the closing stages.

He said: “It’s very difficult to improve your performances week on week and today wasn’t as good as we have produced recently.

“Their substitutions helped them more than ours did us. We needed to use our brains more than brawn, but we’ve not lost the game.

“We didn’t play particularly well, but I think it was just one of those games where things didn’t work out. Our decision making was poor, but if you don’t play well you have to make sure you don’t lose and we will move on from that.”