Karl Robinson strongly criticised the officials as his Salford City side lost 2-0 away at his former club MK Dons.
Robinson, who managed the Dons between 2010 and 2016, was particularly aggrieved at two penalty calls that went against his side.
The first of the calls in question saw a foul given against Salford’s Dan Udoh on Jack Sanders, which saw the home side given a penalty in first half stoppage time that Nathaniel Mendez-Laing converted to make it 1-0.
The second then came in second half stoppage time, when Kadeem Harris went down under a challenge by the Dons’ Aaron Nemane that was not given moments before Callum Paterson scored the goal that made it 2-0 to the home side.
Defeat at Stadium MK saw Salford fall out of League 2’s play-off spots, with the Ammies now down in 9th place, though they sit outside of the play-offs only on goal difference in a tight and congested League 2 table.
Speaking after the game in his press conference, Robinson voiced strong frustration with the refereeing decisions by match referee Ross Joyce.
He said, “I think anybody in this stadium watching this game will say we were the better team.
“This referee shouldn’t referee for a long time. We speak at the top level about how bad refereeing is with VAR, so imagine what we have to deal with lower down because they’re not good enough. Somebody at some stage has to look at this.
“Today, he gave a penalty, and these were his words – we pulled him outside the box and then my number 22 (Adebola Oluwo) fouled him. It wasn’t my 22, he was nowhere near – Dan Udoh was the nearest player. He’s got the wrong player. So how can you tell me he’s got the decision right when he doesn’t even know what player committed the foul? That just shows you how bad he was in that decision.
“Then Kadeem Harris goes in and as he runs past, you can clearly see his right heel is clipped and he goes down. I’m not saying the contact for our penalty was really aggressive, but when you’re going to give minimal contact for a penalty against, that has to stay consistent.
“I’m telling my players to stay on their feet. We’re a club that try and be honest, we’re hard working, we don’t want to go down and seek to gain and we want to do the right things, but if we now have to play the game where we’re going to have go down and scream to get decisions, we might have to do things we don’t believe in. We want to be honest and hardworking – that’s what Salford’s all about. Today, we’ve been done by a refereeing decision.”
Reflecting on the game as a whole, Robinson felt his single biggest gripe was that his team couldn’t take a few chances that they had created along the way.
He said, “I said to my players afterwards that I can back you with the refereeing decisions but I think we missed some good opportunities to take our chances. That’s my only gripe with my team, same as last week in some ways that we were very strong in our shape and probably the best we’ve been out of possession in the last 2 games, but haven’t capitalised on them moments when I really need them too. From that perspective, I’m proud of them getting there. We need to take them that come along.”
Paul Warne was pleased to mark his 450th game as a manager with victory against Salford but the MK Dons boss looked for better performances.
Warne spoke after the Dons managed to grind out a win over a Salford side that had also started brightly in the early stages of the League 2 season, with Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Callum Paterson scoring the goals that did the honours.
Despite the win, Warne felt his MK Dons side didn’t play at their best, and while he praised the opposition for causing them bother, he said it gave him things to think about.
He said, “In 10-15 minutes time, it’ll probably feel great. When you’re not at your best and can win, it’s a really good sign. I just think there’s a few more gears in our team. Fair play to Salford, they made it difficult for us, got a lot of second balls, put a lot of balls in our box. I never felt massively threatened in our penalty area but they did seem to have more control in the second half than we did.
“When you’ve got a 1-0 lead, you feel a bit edgy, they have nothing to lose and have to keep attacking. It’s disappointing then we got the ball back, we never took the sting out of it or took an extra pass or anything like that.”
Warne also revealed that both Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing went off early with injuries, but praised the impact of his squad as a whole for getting things over the line.
He said, “We took Rush off as he felt his hamstring, which doesn’t sound good, we took Mendez-Laing off as he’s done his groin or his groin was tightening up, so we had to take him off, but in fairness, the subs went on, done well and got us 3 points. I’m really pleased with the points and they’ll feel better in about 20 minutes and great tomorrow, but that level of performance, we need to improve. It’s on me.”
Warne said he felt it was a curious game where the two sides were closely matched and accepted his side could’ve easily come away with a different result.
He said, “Weirdly, I was buzzing after the Barnet game as I thought the second half looked like my team. I just didn’t think we looked enough like my team today. I didn’t think we had enough energy and character about us. Prior to the last couple of games, I think we’d started to go in the right direction.
“Maybe the opposition have just done a really good job on us as it felt at times like both shapes just quietened each other off, if you know what I mean. There wasn’t much in either goal area. That’s probably what happens when two good teams play each other.
“I’ve seen many a Premier League game where both teams end up with nothing. Today, we were fortunate to come off with a win.”
Luton Town and Rotherham United shared the points following a 0-0 draw at Kenilworth Road.
The Hatters did extend their unbeaten run to 5 outings in all competitions, but the match would see two in-form sides in League One ultimately cancel each other out as neither could find a breakthrough moment.
The point sees Jack Wilshere’s side now sit 8th in the third tier table. They are 3 points behind Stevenage in the final play-off position, albeit a Boro side that have two games in hand.
Luton had been set for a test against the Millers, with Rotherham arriving in Bedfordshire on the back of 6 consecutive matches unbeaten in the league stretching back to late September.
It was the visitors with the first chance of the afternoon, as Jordan Hugill saw a header denied by home goalkeeper Josh Keeley.
The hosts struggled for chance creation for much of the first half, with the best opportunity seeing a hit by Lamine Fanne drift wide of the mark.
During the second half, Luton began to see a few half-chances arise. Substitute Gideon Kodua had a strike saved by away keeper Cameron Dawson, before Jerry Yates saw a strike go wide, with his claims it was deflected wide not heeded by the referee.
Two more Hatters subs would come close, but neither Zack Nelson nor Jacob Brown could hit the target as the game drifted to a scoreless conclusion.
Luton are next in action next weekend, when they travel to Yorkshire for a clash with Barnsley.
Former MK Dons loanee Troy Parrott scored a hat-trick as Ireland beat Hungary 3-2 to book a World Cup play-off place.
Parrott’s hat-trick in Budapest, which included a 96th minute winner, was enough for Ireland to finish second in their group in World Cup qualifying, which will see the team enter the play-offs for a place at the World Cup in North America next summer.
One-time Don Parrott, who now plays for AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands, was a big hero for the Irish after he scored five goals in two games in the current international break. Parrott had previously scored both goals as Ireland beat Portugal 2-0 in Dublin in their previous match.
Parrott scored his first with a 15th minute equaliser from the penalty spot after the Hungarians had taken a third minute lead. After Hungary took the lead for a second time less than ten minutes before half-time, Parrott would grab a second equaliser in the 80th minute to set up a dramatic conclusion.
With only a victory enough for Ireland to take a play-off place, the visitors piled on pressure and after coming close with several chances, Parrott scored again. The striker was in place to grab a dramatic winner in the sixth minute of added time as he poked the ball past Hungarian keeper Denes Dibusz to grab Ireland victory at the Puskas Arena and leapfrog Hungary to take second place in Group F.
Ireland will now be in the World Cup play-offs as they vie to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 2002, and the fourth time in the nation’s history. The draw for the play-offs will take place on Thursday (20/11), with all teams that enter knowing they will need to win a single-leg tie to set up a single-leg showdown with another opponent to take one of the 4 UEFA places that will be decided in the play-offs.
Parrott previously spent the 2021/22 season on loan with MK Dons from previous club Spurs, playing regular football for a side that finished third in League One that season.
He scored 10 goals in 47 appearances in all competitions, including a late equaliser against AFC Wimbledon and a goal on his final appearance for MK Dons in the play-offs against Wycombe Wanderers.
A goal in injury time at the end of each half helped MK Dons beat Salford City 2-0 at Stadium MK.
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing scored a penalty in added time at the end of the first half, as he struck from a penalty kick strongly disputed by the visitors, before Callum Paterson added a second in stoppage time at the end of the second half.
A 2-0 win saw MK Dons grab a first win in three League Two outings, with the result seeing them climb above their guests and others to move up to third in the table.
As the Dons played their first home league game in 4 weeks, the team were hoping to give boss Paul Warne something to celebrate as he took charge of his 450th game as a manager.
Their opponents were Salford, who began the day directly above MK Dons in the table with the Ammies in 4th and the Dons in 4th. The game also brought a return to Stadium MK for Salford boss Karl Robinson, who managed MK Dons between 2010 and 2016.
MK Dons had the first major opportunity, as an angled drive from Rushian Hepburn-Murphy had to be denied at the near post by Matt Young inside the opening minute.
Robinson was then very nearly celebrating an early goal. In the sixth minute, Craig MacGillivray could only spill a strike from Josh Austerfield, and the ball seemingly fell in the right spot for Kelly N’Mai to tap in, but in the Salford man contrived to strike the bar from inside the six yard box.
Kallum Cesay would then fire wide for the visitors, as the visitors looked likelier to score in a tight first half.
MK Dons’ best opportunity seemed to be a moment where they were inches away from more, as Paterson was inches away from connecting with Rushian Hepburn-Murphy’s cross when any touch would’ve likely resulted in a goal.
Hepburn-Murphy would then limp off with an injury, with the game seemingly set to enter the half-time break scoreless.
But a major incident that changed the flow of the game then happened in first half stoppage time. Young had claimed a cross from the MK Dons right, but the referee had deemed an off-the-ball challenge behind Young on Jack Sanders by Daniel Udoh to be just cause to award the hosts a penalty, much to Salford’s disbelief.
Mendez-Laing stepped up, and he would duly roll a penalty into the bottom corner to score for the second game in a row.
Salford began on the front foot as they chased a response, with Kadeem Harris having a shot deflected wide before Udoh had a shot denied at point-blank range by MacGillivray in the scramble from the resulting corner.
Much of the second half would end up being played in the Dons’ half, as Salford had possession and kept probing the Dons’ backline in search of a way through.
As it was, however, chances proved to be at a premium for the visitors, as they struggled to create a lot of clear-cut chances to work MacGillivray.
A breakthrough nearly came from a set-piece, as MacGillivray had to tip wide a low free-kick from Salford’s Jorge Grant.
Harris would later see a strike blocked and run through to MacGillivray’s arms, as the visitors began to have greater problems in breaking MK Dons down.
There would then be a flurry of chances for the hosts to wrap things up, as Gilbey had a strike deflected wide before substitute Kane Thompson-Sommers had a shot saved by Young.
Already irate at one penalty call that went against them, Salford were then further annoyed when they felt Harris had been fouled by Aaron Nemane in the final minute of stoppage time, but the referee deemed it to be a fair challenge.
Salford were left in further dismay when seconds later, MK Dons struck to confirm their win. A through-pass down the left hand side released Alex Gilbey, and the Dons’ captain duly laid the ball off for Paterson to dink it over Young to make it 2-0.
Victory means the Dons have now picked up 3 home league wins in a row, as Warne got a win to mark the occasion of his 450th game as a manager and the team look to continue to mount a promotion push.
MK Dons: MacGillivray – Offord, Ekpiteta, Sanders – Nemane, Kelly (Crowley 77), Gilbey, Tomlinson (Mellish 77) – Mendez-Laing (Thompson-Sommers 60), Paterson, Hepburn-Murphy (Collar 43)
Subs not used: Trueman, Leko, Maguire
Goal: Mendez-Laing (pen 45+1), Paterson (90+4)
Booked: Sanders, Paterson
Salford: Young – Turton (Siri 90), Oluwo, Cooper (Grant 66) – Harris, Cesay (Longelo 80), Butcher, Austerfield (Stockton 66), Garbutt – Udoh, N’Mai
Subs not used: Howard, Curran-Nicholls, Butt
Booked: Oluwo
