POST MATCH: DUFF CONFIRMS BARNSLEY TO SUBMIT A REPORT REGARDING THE STANDARD OF REFEREEING RECENTLY

Barnsley manager Michael Duff thought his side deserved their point away at Portsmouth on Saturday but confirmed the club would be submitting a report re the standard of refereeing not just at Fratton Park but in recent games.

On the hard fought point in today’s game Duff said to BBC Sheffield:

“I thought we definitely deserved a point. At half time we should be winning the game again, we’ve hit the crossbar, had a one on one, Cole has had another good chance. Credit to them in the second half it wasn’t quite as fluid. They scored a good goal.” “We scored a good goal but the ref decides to disallow it and we kept going to the last minute. I was really really pleased with the spirit and lads coming on, affecting the game. First half I thought we were excellent, second half a bit bitty” “It’s a good point. You look at Oxford away, Portsmouth away, Wednesday and Saturday you would take 4 points all day.”

Regarding the referee

Duff confirmed Barnsley will submit a report re the refereeing decisions not just today but of late that have gone against the club.

“To go one nil down, to show the spirit I’m fed up of talking about referees at the minute, it’s every week. I think the club are going to put something in today because he (referee) didn’t even book the lad, he scythed him down and had no interest in getting the ball. He disallows the goal and doesn’t book the lad so yeah a strange decision amongst many.” “With the amount of penalties we’ve had against us in the last 6 or 7 games, and big big decisions like that go against us but we should have been winning the game at half time and it may have been a different game.”

Barry Cotter`s long throws

Duff explained that no one at the club knew of Barry Cotter’s long throwing ability.

“Last week we were working on the opposition who had a long throw in, setting up defensively and Barry said “well I can throw it” and no one knew and he did in training probably what he did today and they (Portsmouth) wouldn’t have known anything about it either and it was like an Exocet”.

No James Norwood

Supporters were questioning the exclusion of James Norwood for the Portsmouth game but Duff explained that it was purely precautionary to leave the striker out.

“He felt a twinge in his hamstring. It was head over heart, he wanted to give it a go but we thought with the game being on Wednesday he hasn’t had a lot of recovery and he’s important to us so bigger picture we wanted to protect him so we don’t lose him for 6-8 weeks.”