Turner blasts Officials

Hereford United manager Graham Turner has blasted the officials at this afternoon's League One game at Edgar Street after the Bulls were defeated by the only goal of the game, a disputed penalty.

It looked as though new loan signing, Darren Dennehy, had made a perfectly good tackle inside the box on Francis Laurent but the linesman signed a penalty and the referee, Simon Hooper, gave it. What rubbed even more salt into the wound was that former Bulls' striker Theo Robinson converted for Southend.

After the final whistle several Hereford players surrounded the referee, amidst them Dean Beckwith who was given a yellow card.

Coach John Trewick ran onto the pitch to confront the referee. Eventually he was ushered away by one of the stewards.

Turner gave his thoughts, mainly about the referee's decisions, to BBC Hereford and Worcester.

"I thought there were two (decisions). When Febian got through and was deemed to have been fouled. He was clean through, obvious goal scoring chance, and the player should have been sent straight off. It's got to be a red card when he is threw like that. We also felt part of the contact was inside the penalty area.

"Then young Dennehy making his debut. He let the lad get the wrong side of him but I thought it was a superb tackle. He stretched out a long leg, took the ball as cleanly as anything and I think everybody on the ground was amazed to hear the whistle go and see the referee give a penalty.

"We do feel hard done by. It's not been a great game. We've not played particularily well. You hope you get a break.

"The Febian incident, we felt, could have been the break we required. He wriggled himself free and into the box. We were ever so disappointed that there wasn't a better outcome for us. When you're down there decisions tend to kick you in the teeth. I thought that referee's decision certainly did.

"He was clearly running in the box with the ball, goalkeeper to beat when he was knocked down. For me it was a straight forward red card. It part and parcel of the laws of the game - why wasn't it applied?

"I don't moan too much about referees but when you get a referee who can't even kick off on time then you realise there is a degree of a problem there. His decision making was very poor."

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