Steve Cotterill had much to say about the refereeing and red cards against his side this season so far. Two of his players have received red cards in back-to-back league games, including top goal scorer Charlie McCann.
McCann who recently received player of the month, was shown a red card following Cheltenham’s defeat away at Accrington Stanley.
“We’ve had it continually, Charlie McCann getting sent off the other week, it’s an absolutely terrible decision. It wasn’t even a challenge and surely the referees should be able to see that.”
Alongside McCann, midfielder Ben Stevenson received a red card after a foul, Cotterill contested the decision stating that Stevenson was fouled before even kicking the ball.
“The referee just blows the whistle; he just gets a straight red for a foul. That’s all it was, just a blatant foul, no need for a sending off with a red.”
When asked about refereeing quality in the league, Cotterill was adamant something must change, along with VAR usage.
“We’ve had back-to-back poor decision made on us. We’ve had times where we’ve had no penalties that should’ve been and yet had plenty of pens to go against us.”
“I know we’ve had some penalties, but we should’ve had more. That’s not me being greedy, but we know we deserved them.”
The Cheltenham born manager had plenty of ideas for VAR and changing the way match official operates.
“There have only been one or two referees that have been good this season, its huge. Why do we need all those top referees sat around doing VAR, getting decisions wrong. Why don’t we just leave it to human error? It should just be left up to purely human error.”
“We should have two 4th officials, one for the opposition and one for you. They should stand outside the of the technical area and it should be their job to be the referee eyes from the back of the box.”
“If you still want VAR at the top level, I’m not against it, but all this nonsense that happens when fouls are made 2 minutes ago, then you’ve got enough time to defend it then.”
Cheltenham next play Oldham on Saturday 17th October away and with the return of Charlie McCann and Ben Stevenson, Cotterill’s side will be looking to hopefully secure all three points.
