Managers post Fulham

Last updated : 28 November 2006 By Angus Muller

He said: "The game obviously lost its thread when the decision was made. The poor old referee - the law is the law but the law is an ass in this situation.

"It's the denial of a goalscoring opportunity so you should replace it with a goalscoring opportunity. The sending off, I don't think, is relevant but Gallagher had no option.

"From then onwards, the game took on an edge which is not conducive to anything, least of all good football."

Chris Coleman

"It's a penalty all day long but, no complaints there, Dermot Gallagher would have done himself the world of good if he saw a bit of commonsense.

"Does he have to punish us twice? I don't think so. I know what the letter of the law says but I'm sick of hearing ex-referees on the radio saying we've got to respect referees more and help them out.

"There's always a grey area and we've got to let the referees to have a bit of commonsense and get a feel for the game and not be robots."

He added: "For a nasty challenge, he deserves to be sent off but if someone mis-times it give the penalty but you don't have to send him off, it spoils the game.

"After that Dermot made it hard for himself and he was getting quite a lot wrong because he was under pressure immediately.

"Certainly one or two of the laws should be changed to help the referees as much as anyone else."