Oxford boss Robinson calls for ref Yates to be sacked

Karl Robinson has called for referee Ollie Yates to be sacked after Oxford were controversially denied a penalty in their 1-0 loss at Gillingham.

Just two minutes after Tom Eaves had missed a spot-kick for the Gills, Jerome Sinclair appeared to be shoved over by goalkeeper Tomas Holy – only for Yates to wave claims away.

To compound Robinson’s misery, Brandon Hanlan scored with two minutes left to snatch Gillingham the points and send Oxford into the relegation places.

“It’s an embarrassment, it really is,” Robinson said. “The referee will get away with it, he’ll referee again next week. He was poor. Get rid of him, sack him. Managers get sacked; why can’t referees be sacked?

“We’ve had him three times now – he’s been horrendous in all three. I want our players to be honest, I want them to have a bit of class and dignity, but it doesn’t get you anywhere with these referees unfortunately.

“The penalty we should have had for the foul on Jerome Sinclair is one of the worst I’ve never been given.

“Look, the penalty for them was a penalty – he (Rob Dickie) got caught in the wind – but their goalkeeper pushes Jerome first and then when he goes to claim it he pushes him again.”

The result stalls Oxford’s momentum after they had picked up a valuable win against Scunthorpe last week, but Robinson is backing his side to stay up.

“I thought we were the better team. If I had criticisms, we took too many touches in the final third and we didn’t ask questions of their goalkeeper,” Robinson added.

“All of his goals are conceded low down to his left, but our players are trying to put it high.

“The players are disappointed; they’re playing well, we’re not conceding goals but we just have to take our chances. We were rash in our finishing.”

In a congested League One table, Gillingham climb to 13th, eight places and four points above Oxford, and manager Steve Lovell insists they were good value for the win.

“This result will give everybody a lift when they look at the table tonight,” he said.

“But the points are what we’re more concerned about. We’ve got 10 games to go still and winning on Tuesday is the priority now.

“We definitely deserved it – they didn’t have a shot on target. When Tom (Eaves) missed the penalty I was thinking it was going to be one of those days again.

“To get a goal late on after what happened last week against us shows thing can even themselves out over the course of the season. Across the balance of play today we deserved to get the three points.”