Yeovil Town assistant manager Chris Todd was on the media duties this afternoon following the Glovers 1-0 defeat at Oldham, in a match that saw Mark Cooper sent off. Todd spoke to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins.
JP: Chris, what’s your assessment of the 98 minutes?
CT: I believe we should have come away with something, whether that was a point or three points. It was a performance away from home that was capable of coming away with that, you know, at least. To not come away with anything is very disappointing but the referee’s performance, I’m sorry it has to be better. You can accept a few mistakes, that’s football, that’s that’s normal. But there was too many. It was very, very much disappointing for us as staff and very frustrating on the sideline, when you keep seeing decision after decision go the other way, you’re going to get frustrated. But then to send off the gaffer as well, which is madness because he’s got to understand, as a fourth official, the referee’s having a bad day. You can’t allow that to happen.
JP: So do you know exactly what it was that got Mark Cooper the red?
CT: I think it was just persistent us moaning at him really, I suppose. But when decisions aren’t going your way and they’re that bad, it’s gonna happen. You’re gonna get really frustrated. You’re gonna get annoyed. And to send him off, it just summed his performance up. I’m sorry, but it did.
JP: It wasn’t a straight red, it was kind of an accumulation of yellows. Is it fair that Mark Cooper once he’s on the should tread the line carefully?
CT: No, not at all because it wasn’t nothing after that. It wasn’t as if he was like screaming at him. Do you know what I mean? We all were. We were all like saying like ‘you need to be better, he needs to be better’. You know, it wasn’t like swearing or anything like that, which was malicious. It was nothing. Even their side said ‘Come on, like that’s embarrassing’ but there we go.
JP: Only one goal, to be fair, Oldham, you know created more, maybe, chances in the first half, but Yeovil still were it at the end of the first 45…
CT: 100%, it’s away from home, you know, but as I said, like you expect pressure, you expect a bit of defending to do. That’s normal every time you come away from home for sure you’re gonna get that, but the performance was worthy of at least a point, in my opinion, and you know, listen, we haven’t got it now and we have to go again. We have to pick ourselves up. We thank all the fans for their travelling and their support because they outstanding, I thought. And they deserve more on the day.
JP: And Sutton on Tuesday, you know, not too long, I guess, to kind of, as you say, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and go again. What can you expect from Sutton United on Tuesday?
CT: A good team, a good team. Obviously [they’ve] come down. Obviously they’ve done quite well this season so far. Every game in this league, there’s never an easy game and we understand that. So we can’t take our foot off the gas and we’ve got to keep performing. But if you keep performing and you keep putting on performances, the results will come because the quality we’ve got in abundance. We have got quality in the attacking force and then I know defenders can score and midfielders and score. So, we just have to stick together, keep working hard and turn this turn the corner basically.
Todd also spoke to the club’s official channels which you can watch below.