Wally Downes felt that Marcus Forss did not deserve to be sent off today after a decision that turned the match in favour of Bristol Rovers.
The match was locked at 1-1 and in the balance before referee Nick Kinseley decided to show Forss a second yellow card, the first having come for celebrating his first home goal for Wimbledon.
Speaking in his post-match interview, Wally said: “It’s not a tackle for the second booking, it’s just a body clash and he tried to get to the ball. The fella is cute, there’s contact and he went down. It’s a foul, the referee has decided to book him, but it’s on top of the referee booking him for celebrating in the crowd. Now I thought he had to leave the playing area for that and I don’t think he’s done that and he’s hugged a fan.
“I’ve gone in and pulled the ref afterwards and he said that if a player makes any contact with a fan, it’s a booking. It’s a directive and he has to do it and he has been backed up by his number two. In his eyes he has done nothing wrong. I’ve got a player in there who has scored, put us one in front, and I’m left with him in tears in the dressing room. He felt he had let everyone down. He hasn’t committed a foul, a tackle or anything, during the game and he’s sent off. Their guy when they scored the second goal is over with their fans celebrating with them, but the referee said to me he didn’t see that. It’s double standards for me.”
On the game itself, our manager said that Wimbledon were getting on top in the second-half after a first 45 minutes that he was not happy with.
“It was hard to take because we were taking the game to them in the second-half,” added Wally. “We weren’t at the races as much as I’d wanted us to be in the first-half, which was different because we are normally very strong in the first-half. I thought we were growing in the second-half at 1-1. We had two cracking chances, we made the substitutions just before Marcus went, and that obviously made a big difference to the game.
“For the first goal, it was a physical contest in the corner that we’ve come out second best in and the guy has just been allowed to run through past two of our players to head the ball in uncontested. It’s unacceptable in defending that, it was a personal duel in the corner which we didn’t win and two players let their guy run through and head home uncontested. It’s not good enough in terms of professional play.”
Take a look below at the full interview with Wally.