Wellens slams 'inept' refereeing as Swindon suffer first league loss

RICHIE WELLENS wasn’t afraid to make his feelings heard as the Swindon Town manager branded officials decision making as ‘inept’ as Swindon suffered their first defeat of the season in a one-nil home loss against Northampton Town last night. Total Sport Swindon’s Ryan Walker got the thoughts of the STFC manager in the aftermath of defeat.

A shocking decision by the linesman in last night’s League Two encounter saw Northampton score the games only goal, with Andy Williams slotting past McCormick from a clear offside position in the 67th minute. Speaking after the final whistle, Wellens gave a frank assessment of the official's performances and slammed the quality of refereeing within the EFL. 

“Let’s start with inept people,” stated Wellens.

“I need to be careful because we’ll probably have the same ref and linesman next week but the officials are just not good enough.

“They’re not good enough to make consistently good decisions,” he added.

“Everyone stopped when the ball was played into the offside player and it’s blatantly obvious the ball has been touched which is why we stopped. 

“I don’t want to keep harping on but they [officials] aren’t good enough and we get this every week. We should’ve had a penalty last week, we go away to Colchester in the cup, their lad heads it out and the ref gives a corner which leads to the goal,” said Wellens.

“How anybody tonight can’t see the goal kick come forward and then get touched forward I don’t know. 

“We’ve got thousands sat along the touchline and they all seen it and all jumped up. 

“It was such an easy decision. I don’t mind difficult ones but not when they’re easy ones that cost you the game,” said the manager. 

Not afraid to make his sentiments heard, Wellens was asked about why he didn’t appeal the FA conduct charge that he received following a half-time tunnel incident at Swindon’s Carabao Cup game against Colchester. 

With the manager admitting that his refusal to appeal the decision was because he felt it would do very little to change the mind of the decision-makers in charge. 

“What do I do,” exclaimed Wellens.

“I was provoked into a situation where I reacted. I probably shouldn’t have but if people do what was done to me then they’re going to react.
“There’s no point speaking to these people though [match officials],” he said. 

“You go on at the end, and say to the ref did you see him touch that? No, he didn’t touch it. 

“Did you not see him touch it? No, he didn’t touch it.

“I’ve got a lot of time for some of the fourth officials but I'd have a lot more respect if they just admitted a wrong decision had been made,” he added.

“They don’t do that though and instead just cover each other's backs. 

“That’s the same problem with VAR and the Premier League where officials are scared of upsetting the chief referee and going against his decision that they make the wrong decision even when they’ve got technology there in front of them,” said Wellens. 

“It was a shocking, shocking, inept decision [by the linesman.]

“I understand linesman have a really difficult job. But when the balls been touched and both players are in his direct eye line, it’s the easiest offside decision. 

“We can’t affect these inept decisions being made every week but we can affect ourselves and we need to be better,” he said. 

Away from the match officials, Swindon struggled to break down the Northampton defence despite dominating proceedings at the County Ground. Something that Wellens said must be improved upon as the season kicks on. 

“Let’s just move on from that and focus on the performance,” said Wellens. 

“We didn’t start well tonight. We started slow and came up against a team that just want to camp in behind the ball, boot it long and hope for a chance from set plays. 

“We need to be better. I thought up until their goal we were alright but then after the goal, we go long and that’s not us.

“I would like a few more attacking options from the bench, I think that’s clear to see,” he added.

“Keshi [Anderson] is injured at the moment. Lloyd [Isgrove] done unbelievable out there and was brilliant considering he probably shouldn’t have played. 

“The schedule of doing Saturday to Tuesday every week is crazy. I’m picking up injuries but we only have ourselves to blame tonight.

“The crowd was excellent tonight and this team is a work in progress. We’ve had a good opening four games and now we need to cement that with a result against Cheltenham,” said Wellens.