A ‘LET DOWN’ Chris Millington slammed the match officials after Solihull Moors conceded a contentious penalty in defeat against York City.
With the game goalless, referee Sam Mulhall awarded York a penalty on the hour mark following a challenge by Darius Lipsiuc on Greg Olley in the box.
Alex Hunt scored the resulting penalty to put York ahead before Alex Newby’s late goal sealed the points for the visitors at Damson Park.
And Moors boss Millington did not hold back in his criticism of the match officials and felt the penalty decision changed the course of the game.
Millington said: “We feel hard done by and let down. I wish the officials knew the amount of work that goes into putting on a performance.
“The time and effort the players and staff spend preparing, analysing, training and the work and expense behind the scenes to put a game on.
“It’s a nothing decision that we all thought was a foul to us and the referee has deemed it a penalty to them.
“You start to question your own sanity and so we watch it back and the reality is we were right. There’s no decision to make.
“All of that work of all of those people and all of that expense and you’re undone. After that we’re chasing the game and the second goal often happens in those moments.
“It just isn’t good enough. It brings into question an awful lot about the officiating.
“Our lads deserved something out of the game and that possibility was taken away from them by a really poor refereeing display.”
Millington also felt other key decisions went against his side following the penalty award.
Millington added: “We were trying to wrestle control of the game but the referee decides to give control firmly to York by giving them a penalty that simply isn’t a penalty.
“Then Jacob Wakeling gets pulled down by their centre half who is already on a yellow. He [the referee] does not give anything.
“We’re asking the fourth official ‘why do you think an ever-present in their defence is getting substituted when they’re only one-nil up?’
“It was because their manager can see he should have had a second yellow and the referee should be making braver decisions.
“Some officials really struggled against the so called big teams and, I’m not making any accusations, possibly that was the problem.”
Solihull are next in action against Brackley Town on Saturday, February 7 with kick-off at 3pm at St James Park.
