Charlton Athletic boss Michael Appleton: Referee had a shocker – he couldn’t wait to give penalty

Charlton Athletic head coach Michael Appleton was critical of referee Thomas Kirk’s decision to award Cambridge United a late penalty in today’s 2-2 draw at The Valley.

The Addicks looked to be heading for maximum points after Alfie May’s 19th goal of the campaign – and 15th in League One – was followed by Chem Campbell nodding in Corey Blackett-Taylor’s cross to put them 2-0 ahead after 61 minutes.

But Gassan Ahadme headed in George Thomas’ corner three minutes before the end of normal time.

And then Ahadme beat Ashley Maynard-Brewer from the penalty spot after Kirk ruled that Tayo Edun’s foul on Jack Lankester was inside the box. Replays showed that the initial contact was outside of the box.

“I’m not going to defend the referee because it is indefensible,” said Appleton. “Before the lad has even hit the ground the whistle is in his mouth. He has given the penalty and it is clearly outside the box.

“I just told him (the referee) that he had a shocker. Clearly that is what linesman are there to do – to try and help make decisions. But I don’t think he even gave the linesman an opportunity make a call or a say on it.

“There are so many mixtures of emotions. The way the first half panned out a lot of players looked a little bit nervous and anxious – they struggled playing with an expectation on them, which is a little bit alarming at half time.

“Having said that, with the changes we’ve had to make over the last couple of weeks and the players we haven’t got playing at the minute due to injury – the physical presence they have – it wasn’t a massive surprise. But I still felt we should’ve dealt with that a little better.

“In the second half we were on the front foot, aggressive and passed the ball forward much more like ourselves. We go 2-0 up and could’ve scored another couple. You think ‘okay, well done – good response.

“Just little bits of detail have let us down at the end. We can’t allow a free header from seven yards out. It is impossible to allow that to happen at any level of football.”

“Clearly they had a big, big height advantage today which we knew was going to be difficult. I was pretty sure there would be times today that we were going to be losing headers because of the physicality and height they had – it’s about our players making sure it wasn’t a clean or free header. That is the disappointment with the goal.”

PICTURES: PAUL EDWARDS