Hughton Blames Referee For Toon Cup Defeat

Last updated : 24 January 2010 By Footy Mad - Editor

Chris Hughton: "It is normal at the end of the game when you think that decisions have wrongly gone against you that some of the anger and frustrations come out.

"The first goal, I can't for the life of me see how a linesman can rule that over the line and of course there is the fact he has given two penalties against us and why he has not given any for us.

"There was no explanation from him.

"I thought the first penalty we conceded was a soft one and if the referee is going to give a soft penalty like that he has to give the two penalties that were against Ryan Taylor and Shola Ameobi.

"What we were led to believe is that he was going to give a yellow card (to Ryan Taylor) and changed his mind to a red one.

"I think that is incredibly harsh.

"Having got back to 2-1, we felt we had a good chance.

"But at 3-1 and down to 10 men it was going to be incredibly difficult.

"Losing is a setback. We wanted to make progress in the cup but it wasn't to be and we now have to go on to our main objective."