Bellamy is still furious

By Matthew Jones
September 16 2002

Craig Bellamy has blasted the assistant referee for failing to punish Chelsea's defender, Marcel Desailly for slapping the striker in United's defeat on Saturday. The linesman, Dave Babski is to blame for not seeing this "off-the-ball" incident which occured while the scores were level at 0-0.

Craig Bellamy has blasted the assistant referee for failing to punish Marcel Desailly for slapping the striker in United's defeat on Saturday.

Bellamy is still furious that linesman Dave Babski failed to alert referee Barry Knight to the off-the-ball incident which occurred with the score at 0-0.

Chelsea scored almost immediately afterwards and Desailly was outstanding as they went on to shut out the Magpies' attempts to get back into the game.

An angry Bellamy said: "Let's just say I was disappointed with the incident. I would like something to be done about what happened but there is nothing I can do. I was mainly annoyed with the linesman. It happened right in front of him and he has to be brave and put his flag up, but he wasn't. He has turned a blind eye and that is the most irritating thing for me. We will just have to wait and see what happens, but it wasn't pleasant."

However, Bellamy added: "We were well beaten and that is frustrating."