Accrington Stanley assistant boss blasts referee Busby for Charlton penalty and keeper dismissal

BY RICHARD CAWLEY

Accrington assistant manager Jimmy Bell has slammed referee John Busby for awarding the late penalty which secured Charlton a 1-0 win today at The Valley.

The official gave the spot-kick for handball. Karlan Grant fired home the penalty.

Charlton striker Lyle Taylor, pictured below, and Accrington keeper Jonny Maxted were both shown red cards after tangling from a corner. It sparked an ugly melee in the box afterwards.

Bell said: “The officials need to come out and explain the decision of why Charlton won the game today.

“A referee has turned around and said to me he didn’t think it was a penalty. Now who is officiating the game? John Busby is in charge of the game, he’s got a birds-eye view of the incident. And he has let an official, who is working for him, give a major, major decision in added-on time who in my opinion cannot even see the incident.

“Mr Busby is looking directly at the incident. He turned around and said: ‘I don’t think it’s a penalty Jimmy, but when one of my officials is adamant it was then I have to go with him’. I don’t understand where he is coming from.

“There is a lot of hard work which has gone into this game against a very good Charlton team. We worked our socks off for 91 or 92 minutes. When something like that happens it is really hard to bear.

“You’ve got an official who sent our goalkeeper off and he is adamant that he has done absolutely nothing. He got assaulted in the box by their striker. Now we get our keeper sent off. He got kicked in the chest, he said. And he’s fell on top of him, he’s thrown him off and got sent off.

“Another major, major decision which has gone against us and one we’re really het up about.”