Bristol City manager Steve Cotterill was not very happy with referee Simon Hooper after he cost his side two points in the game against Leyton Orient last night.
The two sides met at Ashton Gate and although goalkeeper Frank Fielding came to City’s rescue a number of times, it was the hosts who managed to get the ball in the net.
But Hooper ruled the goal out for a ‘foul’ on goalkeeper Adam Legzdins by Sam Baldock, something that proved to be nothing more than a figment of the referee’s imagination.
Cotterill was quick to view a DVD of the incident and after the game he told reporters: ‘Sam hasn’t touched the keeper. I can’t believe that when the referee sees what happened again, as I have, he will find a reason for disallowing the goal. He will have to admit he made a huge mistake.
‘We should be talking about a 1-0 win. Instead, the players are disappointed, but I saw a lot of positives to take out of the game.’
Cotterill also explained that he was expecting a difficult time against Orient and also looked towards the next game which is against Rochdale.
He added: ‘We knew Orient would be difficult to break down and that we would need to keep a clean sheet. The players passed the ball well under pressure.
‘I am happy with seven points from nine. We go Rochdale on Saturday and that could prove our toughest game so far because they are a good side.’
Cotterill’s counterpart, Russell Slade had this to say about the incident: “I was a long way away from the disallowed goal. We try to pressurise the keeper from that type of situation by putting a player on him and sometimes the referee will give a free-kick for pushing or obstruction.
“Bristol are aggrieved that it wasn’t a goal, but it would have been very cruel on us given the balance of play.”
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VITAL LEYTON ORIENT
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