REFEREEING decisions can change matches but sometimes you just have to put it behind you.
Decisions will go against you during the season but if you look at Saturday’s performance then overall it was not bad.
We created chances and, although we were a little shaky defensively, we were not helped.
Early on, a seasoned pro went down with the touch of a feather and the referee gave a penalty.
In my opinion, that was a wrong decision but we were 1-0 down within minutes of the kick-off.
Then later when we were well on top in the game, we received a penalty – which was the right decision – but then the referee followed up with a wrong decision by not sending off the Chesterfield goalkeeper.
If the goalkeeper goes off and a fresh one comes on, the opposition are down to 10 men and you score the penalty, then it’s 2-1 against 10 men and the game changes.
We would have had our tails up and it would have been quite different.
Unfortunately, the referee did not send the keeper off; he got up, saved the penalty, Chesterfield were on the up again and the game changed again.
The first reaction by the Chesterfield bench had been to warm up their substitute goalkeeper.
Everyone expected the keeper to go; when you look at it on the replays, there was one defender who got back on the line but that was way afterwards.
He could not have got back to clear – if Mathieu Manset had still been on his feet, it would have been a goal.
Just before half-time, Stuart Fleetwood hit a post, Joe Colbeck had a fantastic run, crossed the ball and Manset had a header tipped over the bar.
When we came out for the second half, we had a penalty, then one was cleared off the line; Fleetwood bent another one past a post.
Possession-wise, and in the chances-count, the period either side of half-time was all us and if anybody was going to score the next goal, it was going to be us.
That decision changed the whole outlook of the game.
If you picked up the paper on Sunday morning and saw a 4-0 defeat, it looked like a hammering but for people who were there, it wasn’t.
There were some interesting results on Saturday, with Rotherham beating Cheltenham 6-4 and Crewe beating Barnet 7-0.
I said at the start of the season that I thought Crewe were capable of doing that to anyone with the way that they pass the ball and create chances.
It just shows just how good a result our win at Crewe was.
It also shows what level we are at and how tough this division is.
There will be some strange results on any given weekend.
Last weekend, a lot of goals went in and unfortunately we were on the wrong end of four of them.
Two weeks down the line, it could easily be the other way.
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