Referee Gavin Ward’s big decision late on raised questions from the Scotsman
Alex Neil in conversation with the fourth official at the MKM Stadium (Image: Anna Gowthorpe/Shutterstock)
Alex Neil was left to rue Gavin Ward’s decision to disallow Ryan Leonard’s goal in the closing stages of Millwall’s 0-0 draw at Hull City in the first leg of their play-off semi-final at Hull City.
Leonard turned in just minutes from full-time but referee Ward had already blown for a foul on City defender Charlie Hughes by Tristan Crama.
Boss Neil was less than impressed with the decision to chalk off the goal, which would have given the Lions the advantage going into Monday’s second leg at The Den.
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Neil’s counterpart Sergej Jakirovic felt the decision to disallow the goal was correct, with the Lions’ chief seeking to understand the referee’s position.
“I think you could see at the start of the game for both teams that nobody wanted to give anything away,” the Lions boss said. “I thought it was quite a cagey first half.
“I thought we got the better of the first half. I thought the ball stuck when it went up to Josh Coburn. He was excellent in the game. I thought we had some good performances across the pitch. I thought Derek Sacko was excellent in the middle of the pitch.
“In the second half we had Cami where he’s hit the post, we’ve had Femi where the keeper has made a really good save. And we had the goal that was disallowed, which, yeah, I’ll be interesting to see what Gavin’s views on that are because I thought it was quite harsh. I’ll be interested to see what he thinks about it.
“But, all in all, I thought that you could see that that should give us confidence in the next leg to go and hopefully try and win the game on Monday.”
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