​Officials ‘blighted Wongers display’ against Crowle

John Rawdon felt his side were harshly dealt with.John Rawdon felt his side were harshly dealt with.
John Rawdon felt his side were harshly dealt with.
​Joint-boss John Rawden felt the match officials blighted what was otherwise an encouraging day for Horncastle Town despite being beaten 4-0 at home by Crowle Colts.

​The young Wongers side put in a positive display before a series of penalties and red cards in the second-half ‘ruined the game’ in Rawden’s opinion.

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But he was still keen to praise his squad who were up against a very strong outfit.

He said: "We knew it would be difficult to get anything out of Crowle as they’re a good side with a lot of resources and a lot of ambition to go through the leagues.

"But we demanded our lads went out and put in a respectable performance. To be fair, the lads responded brilliantly and played really, really well. In the opening phases we should have gone 1-0 up and if we had that would have changed things.

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"Unfortunately we didn’t but for the first 20/25 minutes we were comfortable and matching Crowle in all areas of the pitch.

"They went 1-0 up from a set piece but we still held our own, then we went 2-0 down as we were pushing and asking some questions.

"We were happy and buoyant at half-time though as we were competing in the game, but then in the second-half I can’t really explain what happened.

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"I rarely get on to referees’ backs as I know they do a difficult job, but a good game was completely ruined by the officials.

"We had Archie Offord sent off ten minutes in for what was deemed an over excessive tackle but it absolutely wasn’t that. It was a booking at most.

"Then Crowle had a man sent off for what again wasn’t a malicious tackle in the middle of the park and never a red card.

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"The ref then lost control really – there were three or four sin bins, then he overruled his assistant and awarded a penalty against us which was missed, but then they had another penalty and Alec Enderby was sent off for handball on the line and it was 3-0.

"Ultimately we went 4-0 down, with eight players on the pitch due to another sin bin, and the scoreline and the fact there were three red cards was no indication of how the game was at all.

"Crowle deserved to be 2-0 but without the subsequent decisions from the referee I believe we’d have made a real fist of it."

Horncastle now visit Santon in the County Cup on Saturday.

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