Former MK Dons boss Karl Robinson criticises officials after Salford beaten at Stadium MK

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.”