Barnet manager Dean Brennan accused referee Ryan Atkin of “lies” after claiming he sent off Ephron Mason-Clark at Huish Park yesterday.
He said the official had told him the winger had headbutted a Yeovil player in an off-the-ball incident in the 87th minute of the game settled by a ninth-minute Adi Yussuf goal.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.
Brennan and his entire coaching staff were then yellow carded by Atkin for their protests about the dismissal.
In a clear violation of Rule 1 of the Gloverscast, the manager said: “We had a player sent off for nothing, for one of their players squaring up to our player and inciting our player. Nothing happened.
“If they tell me that Ephron butted him, they are lying because I watched the whole incident and nothing happened.
“I watched it. It’s lies. I watched the whole incident, everyone on the bench watched it, (Barnet goalkeeping coach) Dave Anderson watched it and I asked him ‘are my eyes deceiving me?’
“He came over and booked lots of us for complaining about the sending off which he said was a headbutt. To me that’s a lie because I didn’t see a headbutt and I watched the whole incident.”
Brennan said the club would appeal if they could get footage of the incident and, having seen it appear on social media on Sunday, there’s a fair chance of a successful appeal.
? #YTFC #rule1 https://t.co/4w8RlLw94t
— Gloverscast ?⚽️? (@gloverscast) December 12, 2021
The Barnet boss added that a Yeovil player had committed “the clearest handball you have ever seen in your life” in the final minute of the game – but said Yeovil deserved all three points.
He added: “I thought Yeovil were good, they deserved to win that game, the damage was done in the first ten minutes when they started well and scored in that period.
“I’m not blaming the referee for us losing today, I thought the better team beat us but to send Ephron off was ridiculous.”
The referee handed out five yellow cards (not including the visitors’ bench!) with four coming for Yeovil and one for Barnet.
You can read Ian’s view of the match and the officiating – here.