ENGLISH FA CUP FOURTH ROUND: Crawley Town 0 Stoke City 2:VICTORY IS usually enough to soothe a manager who feels wronged by the officials but Stoke City's Tony Pulis was far from sanguine despite his side's comfortable victory over League Two Crawley that puts them into a third successive FA Cup quarter-final, pointing to "a big problem" in the way matches are refereed.
Stoke midfielder Rory Delap was sent off after 17 minutes for a tackle on Crawley’s David Hunt. It was a lunge with studs up but low and one-footed and initially the referee, Michael Jones, awarded a throw-in. The challenge was forceful enough, though, to send the Crawley manager, Steve Evans, hopping on to the pitch in fury, and the fourth official, Lee Probert, who had a fine view of the incident, immediately indicated the challenge warranted a red card. Hunt hobbled off early in the second half, with what Evans described as a four-inch gash in his ankle caused by the challenge.
Pulis wants to see the League Managers’ Association and the Professional Game Match Officials meet to resolve what he sees as a major issue. “Professional people and referees are so far apart sometimes in what they see as being fair challenges and reckless ones,” he said. “We’ve had a fourth official, Lee Probert, today who has got Rory Delap sent off but he’s refereed a game, Liverpool v Newcastle, and not even booked a player for what was the worst challenge in the Premier League this year – Yohan Cabaye’s challenge on Jay Spearing.
“The difference between what we think and what referees think sometimes is enormous. That’s what we’ve got to try and do: get close to referees to explain our views. That is the disappointing thing, the enormous gap between what they think is a bad challenge and what we think is a fair one.”
It is not the first time this season Pulis has called for off-field action to combat perceived on-field injustice. After Robert Huth’s red card against Sunderland this month he called for the PFA to act to combat simulation and play-acting. Nor is it the first time he has clashed with Probert. Pulis was fined after his comments about the referee following his performance in Stoke’s League Cup tie against Liverpool in October.
Both those fixtures ended in defeat but here they were largely comfortable despite their numerical disadvantage. All the ingredients for a shock were there even before the red card – a tight, crumbling pitch, tiny terraces, a lower-league side pushing for promotion, even a Premier League side drained by their midweek efforts in Europe – but Jon Walters’ penalty and Peter Crouch’s second-half header ensured any drama remained centred on the officials.
Evans was as irked as Pulis by several decisions. “I’ve just watched the key highlights and we shouldn’t be out,” said the Crawley manager. “The sending-off, in today’s game, is right. Two years ago, 18 months ago, perhaps it’s not, but the directives have changed. Their penalty . . . on replays it’s clear it’s not a penalty. There is no contact. In the second half [Tyrone] Barnett has been battered as he goes up for a header and that’s a penalty. And is there any excuse for missing Ryan Shawcross’s handball on the line?”
The Stoke captain’s alleged misdemeanour, from Sanchez Watt’s overhead effort, came in the dying moments. Throughout the second half Evans’s side were impressive, with Watt a little unfortunate not to have halved the deficit with one of several chances. But Crouch’s header from Glenn Whelan’s deep free-kick early in the second half provided a buffer that precluded panic in the Premier League side.
Crouch, in a first 10 minutes of Crawley pressure, had clattered the ball against his own bar from a corner and until the sending-off the home team carried a greater threat.
Guardian Service
