9:14am Friday 17th February 2006
By Dennis Aris
FURIOUS Kendal manager Tony Hesketh has hit out at inconsistent standards among referees, writes Dennis Aris.
He says poor decisions have:- n Robbed him of the services of captain Lee Ashcroft for three matches, including the key clash with league leaders Mossley.
n Caused the unnecessary cancellation of Saturday's home match with Warrington Town.
n Resulted in the club receiving an unwarranted order to appear before the FA to answer a charge of ill-discipline.
Town were doubly hit last weekend when they learned on Friday that their appeal against Ashcroft's red-card had been rejected and that he would be banned immediately for three games.
Then an hour before Saturday's kick-off the Warrington match was ruled out by referee Mr Lee Metcalfe in what Hesketh described as: "a farcical decision."
The Town manager has always maintained that the incident in the Ossett Albion match for which Ashcroft was dismissed was nothing more than two players running into each other.
"We are not a dirty side," he said. "The UniBond is a clean, fair, league with some competitive sides in it and we are one of them, but we are not dirty or ill disciplined.
"We do not have over-the-top tackles or mass dissent it is just the way things have gone.
"This pitch issue is just emphasises further the disparity we have got with referees. Clearly this guy on Saturday came down, saw the pitch and in his limited experience decided it was unfit to play.
"My team then played a full training session in studs for 75 minutes and the pitch was fine, although muddy at the end. Kendal rugby team played on their pitch less than mile away.
"Our pitch was perfect, but this man chose to disappear at 2.35pm and would not listen to any reason or watch players use it in a warm-up. It affected people coming through the gate, programme sales and other club preparations.
"It also took away out chance to get a little bit of distance between ourselves and the team in third place," he added.
"Warrington were also keen to play. Their manager said there was nothing wrong with the pitch.
"The referee made a horrible mistake, which will disrupt the rest of our season.
"We now have to squeeze that game into Easter week, which will force us to play Saturday, Tuesday, Friday, Monday and the following Saturday. Five games in a fortnight.
"He is a good young referee who could have learned from experience on Saturday by watching the players warm-up and train.
"Then he could have made an informed decision, but he chose not to do that. I believe he had a preconceived idea that the game would be off on his way up to the ground."
Hesketh said he intends to protest his case against inconsistent refereeing forcefully when Town officials meet the FA disciplinary panel on Monday.
Turning to the immediate on the pitch matters he said that with strong midfielders Ricky Mercer and Stuart Cliff still a week away from fitness he will have to explore other options to cover for Ashcroft's absence away to Warrington on Saturday and home to Mossley on Tuesday night.
"There is every chance that we shall go back to the formation we used successfully at Bridlington," he said.
"It was almost 4-3-3 formation, with the wingers encouraged to get forward alongside the single striker. It also gives use considerable strength in midfield. That is one possibility, but we will wait and see."
He planned to explore that and other options during training on Thursday, which was due to take place on a ground near Preston as Kendal's pitch was unplayable after heavy rain early in the week.
Reflecting on last weekend he said the one bright spot was that results elsewhere in the First Division had worked well for Town with fourth-placed Fleetwood, who had games in hand, losing 3-2 to Bridlington and seventh-placed Gresley going down 2-1 at Belper.
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