Wally Downes felt that referee Trevor Kettle got it wrong with his decision to send off Mitch Pinnock in the first-half at Charlton.
The Wimbledon manager was encouraged by his side’s second-half display in the 2-0 defeat, but he believes the Dons should have maintained their one-man advantage after Naby Sarr was dismissed in the first minute.
Speaking during his post-match interview for iFollow, Wally said: “There did not seem to be too many complaints about their sending off. He certainly came through very fast, it’s a chance you take, and the referee seemed very decisive about that. The referee booked Mitch initially and said that he would have sent him off if there had been more contact. It looked like he was edging towards evening it up and the decision he’s made is incorrect because there is contact with Mitch. He was through on goal, the guy who has fouled him puts his hands up straight away to show his innocence.
“In football, sometimes it’s a frailty of referees, as they’re often accused of wanting to even things up if something has happened earlier. In this case the referee has said to me that sometimes they’re wrong and the linesman has said the same thing. We will look at it, but for me, Mitch is in a great position, he’s not going to dive there, and it was a foul.”
Wally added that he did not feel there was much between the two sides in today’s match.
“I thought we certainly contained them in the first-half and limited them to no chances, even though they were down to 10 men. I didn’t want to change the plan that we had when we came here, just because they had a man sent off. At that stage, I thought the longer the game went on, the stronger we would have become and the better opportunities we would have had to win.
“I thought the game was turning in our favour from 70 minutes onwards. It’s human nature that sometimes you are not as positive after you go 1-0 up and that was the case with Charlton. We got into the game then and had chances, we were pressing. It’s just disappointing that we gave one away at the end through our own fault. We gave the ball away in our own half, which was a problem for both goals really, and the last five minutes was difficult then. From 70 minutes to 85 minutes we were certainly pressing to get back into the game.
“I didn’t think there was a lot between the two sides today. If the decisions had gone our way and we had performed the way we did, I’m comfortable that we would have come away with a minimum of a point. Against 10 men, I think we would have come away with a victory. With the way we played in the second-half we would have got stronger. They had a game in the week and I think their legs were getting tired, but once they got the second goal it was difficult for us because we were chasing the ball then.”
Click on the link above for the full post-match interview with Wally.