GTF : We were robbed

By Nathan Jackson
March 14 2005

Imps striker Gary Taylor-Fletcher believes the Imps were robbed of all 3 points at Southend. The popular striker had a goal disallowed midway through the 2nd half before a late Futcher header was equalised by a controversial penalty.

Southend had been falling over all day long and I was convinced at the ground they dived for the penalty and I'm still convinced after seeing several replays that it wasn't a foul. The goal in the 89th minute robbed City of 3 point which would have helped in the promotion push which has only seen a return of 2 points from the last 4 games. 3 weeks ago, City were 6 points clear of 8th, 4 games later and we're level on points with 8th placed Wycombe, ironically, if we'd have won all 4 games, we'd be 2nd at the minute.

"I was absolutely amazed he disallowed the goal," preached GTF who was denied his 11th of the season as he was interviewed by the Echo.  "I managed to get the ball off their player and put it in the net, only for the referee to say I had used my elbow. But if I had done so then surely he should have booked me for it? When Futch scored I actually thought the referee would disallow it for a foul because there was some doubt. But whatever the case, there was no way my goal should have been chalked off. "I think we would have settled for a point before the game. But looking back, when we played football, we opened them up quite easily. Scoring so late in the game, I thought we'd done it and it was a sickener when they equalised."

The home fans weren't exactly happy with the referee, Mr Penton either and he was booed by all 4 sides of the grounds at the final whistle, Keith Alexander was also puzzled as to why GTF's goal was disallowed.

"Two diabolical decisions from the referee cost us the chance of coming back to Lincoln with three points," said Alexander. "The referee said Fletch had fouled their player, but I couldn't see anything wrong and there were no protests from any of their players or the crowd. The referee didn't award us a single decision during the entire 90 minutes. They say these things even themselves over the season, so hopefully we'll have a referee who will give something in our favour against Shrewsbury on Saturday. However, overall I thought we battled back well after a couple of indifferent performances.
Southend are flying at the moment, so I was delighted to go there and come away with a point.

City now have 9 games to secure a playoff place, it's still all in our own hands as we still have to play 5 of the other current top 7 and the other games are against struggling sides so hopefully we'll be able to start winning again soon and Shrewsbury's visit on Saturday will be the first chance for that to happen.