Bristol Rovers’ Tom Lockyer has been slammed by fans for his ‘disgusting’ elbow on Oldham’s Kane Drummond on Tuesday night.
Will Murray of Bristol Post said: “Tom Lockyer returned to the starting lineup and was extremely fortunate to stay on the pitch after clattering Drummond with an elbow in the 28th minute. Defensively, the Welsh centre-back looked rusty, and he was withdrawn five minutes after the hour mark.”
Kane Drummond had scored one of the quickest goals of the EFL season, just 35 seconds on the clock when Drummond found the top corner.
Then Fondop’s penalty on the 59th-minute goal ended Oldham’s four-match winless run while it’s a third straight loss for Rovers.
Oldham sit 16th in League Two with 39 points from 30 games played, while Bristol Rovers are 22nd with 27 points from 32 games played, two points above the drop zone, but have a game in hand.
Oh my god!!
That is disgusting on Drummond.
The most blatant of deliberate elbows I’ve ever seen.#oafc pic.twitter.com/cpV1pHRB22
— McGoo (@Mcgoo_84) February 17, 2026
Celebrating it with a swift elbow and a 6 game ban I expect now. No leader in my book
— LP (@LP15393) February 18, 2026
Tom Lockyer has since issued a statement via Instagram, saying: “Thanks for all the abusive messages Oldham fans. Few things I want to state as facts – I’ve never elbowed someone intentionally in my whole career.
“The ref was looking straight at the incident after what happened 10 seconds before and booked your player for holding his head when not one part of me touched his head. I put my arm across his chest.
“If there was any actual proper footage in hd we wouldn’t even be talking about this but footage from across the pitch recorded on a potato granted doesn’t look great – in fact I welcome any proper hd footage.
“Your player accepted the yellow as he knew I didn’t touch his head.
“I am many things on a football pitch but I would never EVER do someone like that regardless of the circumstances.”
As HD as it comes Mr. Lockyer
— Harrison ⚽️ (@Harrison_1895) February 18, 2026
Oldham Athletic manager Micky Mellon said, per Oldham Times: “Have you seen it? It’s outrageous!,” said Mellon of the incident.
“I’m going to send that to the referees’ people and ask for an explanation for that. Don’t know if we’ll get it. But I think that was outrageous.
“I don’t want to see people get sent off, but you can’t do that. You can’t go and elbow somebody right square in the face. And then he gets booked, Drummond, then he’s running a tightrope. Another foul and he’s sent off for getting elbowed in the pan.
“I can’t believe that he got booked.
“I’ll send it in and I’ll see what they say.
“But he just gets on with it. He just cracks on.”
Mellon said on the game, per Oldham Times: “We worked really hard for it…
“It was a whole team effort, the lads who came off the bench as well played their part which is important for us.
“We scored a couple of goals, the first one’s a cracker, which is very welcome.
“It was a terrific hit and I’m delighted for him (Drummond). We’ve got to score more goals. If you’re a striker you’ve got to score more goals and that’s what him and Mike (Fondop) have got to do, they’ve got to score more goals for us and today they did that. They did their jobs very well.
“If you can get an early goal it sort of sets the state of the game and that’s what it kind of did.
“And we got a clean sheet. It kind of backs up the result at the weekend so we’ll keep the points ticking over.
“We worked really hard and we were made to work hard as well.
“My keeper’s had to make a couple of good saves, the defence has put themselves on the line and won headers at important times. They’ve all worked really, really hard.
“There was a period in the second half where we looked like we needed a bit of help from the bench and the boys came on and were able to do that and settled it back down and we probably should have scored a third. But it was a hard fought win and definitely an important win.”
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Bristol Rovers boss Steve Evans said: “I think it’s a very harsh defeat; this isn’t a Cambridge performance where I questioned a lot of individuals and the team. You know, they score inside a minute with a fantastic strike. For five to six minutes, we regroup in the game, and then we dominate.
“You can’t miss the level of chances, there are three individuals that missed three sitters, simple as that and then it carries on in the second half, we miss a gilt-edged chance to equalise, and within seconds, they’ve got a penalty. I’ve looked at it back — is that a penalty? No, it’s not a penalty, but we’re in a situation where we’re not going to get something that’s fair and equal.”
“Goals change games, but I said to the boys in there, if you can’t take those chances, then we worry, because they are gilt-edge chances. They’re not shots from the edge of the box; they’re free headers and free strikes from inside the box unmarked, and it’s hard to accept that they’re missed.”
I think it’s a very harsh defeat; this isn’t a Cambridge performance where I questioned a lot of individuals and the team.
“This is a tough place to come, we knew that going to Cambridge and coming to Oldham would be tough, but we’ve come here and Micky Mellon, the boss here at Oldham, will be really pleased that they got a two–nil victory. But Micky’s an honest guy; he’ll reflect on this, and he’ll think we should score three or four goals tonight.
“I think they had one other chance when there’s a huge mistake with Alfie Kilgour. Other than that, I don’t think they’ve made a chance, and we made, in total in the game, five and a harsh penalty given against us.”
“The fans are outstanding at this football club; the fans are never in question here. We just have to dust ourselves down; this was always going to be a difficult run. The only two performances that I’ve been alarmed about were Barnet, a way back now and Saturday at Cambridge, but they responded tonight with a good performance.
“I thought the lads came in and did well, I thought Tommy Leigh did well, and Thompson-Sommers was really good in spells, so I think the boys who have come in did really well, but we need to take our chances. I think it was dominant in possession and attacking play at one point, and the Oldham fans are brilliant fans, but they were very quiet tonight until they scored their second goal, and the reason they’re quiet is that they’ve watched an away team dominate the game.”
On five changes, and if they give you plenty to think about going into Saturday: “Yeah, it does. I think some of the boys played really well. It’s hard to come out and say that when you’ve just been beaten, but the performance gives us hope.”
On the back of three difficult defeats, and hoping to get back to the good form when back at the Mem: “It’s always good to be at home, but we have to get points home and away to be in the Football League. You see results tonight — you’ve got Harrogate, and Newport go and win at Salford — so from that point of view, teams are fighting for their lives, and the performance was good, we just never took our chances.”
As mentioned, Bristol Rovers’ Tom Lockyer has been slammed by fans on social media for his ‘disgusting’ elbow on Oldham’s Kane Drummond…
@bringbackngoo: Both players received yellow cards for this!
@DonkeyDelph: The @FA need to have a look at this because the referee obviously didn’t see the incident in full otherwise it would have been a red card for the Bristol Rovers player. What do you say @FAspokesperson
@dancingdickie: Right in front of where I sit, couldn’t believe it! Then he even booked him 👀
@AngryOwl1895: And they booked Drummond for that…
@ly_oafc: If that bloke playing non league gets a sentence for the same thing the other week then there’s no way this doesn’t get the same treatment. Mental #oafc
@MRiggers96: He’s a lucky boy, definitely should’ve been sent off
@bs4_gas: Yea, that’s not looking good for you Tom. Very poor.
@joegilbert1605: Headless from one of our most experienced players. Some example he’s setting. Been terrible since he’s signed wouldn’t be bothered if he’s banned for the season.
@LP15393: Celebrating it with a swift elbow and a 6 game ban I expect now. No leader in my book
@ChrisWall85: Benefit of the doubt that the ref didn’t see this. Ref was decent tonight imo This elbow is blatant as fuck. Disgusting. Retrospective ban at a minimum
@Scotty_mc10: That’s horrific, Lockyer will deservedly get a massive retrospective ban for that, cowardly in all honesty.
@AshGrant: How the fuck did the ref give Drummond a yellow card for this?? Absolutely abysmal refereeing
@ElliotLane11: Won’t be making it 301 on Saturday once the FA have had a word
@JuiceJohnson28: Wouldn’t mind but Lockyer had 2 goes at him before this. All right in front of the linesman. Absolute prick #oafc
@bringbackngoo: Congrats Tom, have a few weeks off #UTG
@GasG0ssip: Immaculate timing as ever Gas 🤦♂️🤣
@raddersss: Probably not the best timing fellas
@ClassOnGas: Surprised if he has anymore after yesterday
@kieran_yo: Nice round number to end it on 👍🏻
@MikeKeegan_DM: If you think the standard of refereeing in the PL is bad take a look at this deliberate elbow in League Two tonight – which resulted in a yellow for both players. 🤦♂️
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