Footage emerges of Chesterfield keeper Lucas Covolan red carded after off-the-ball incident

Footage emerges of Chesterfield keeper Lucas Covolan being red carded after an off-the-ball incident after initially rushing off his line.

With the scoreline at 1-0 to the Spireites thanks to Akwasi Asante’s 18th-minute opener, debutant goalkeeper Covolan, on loan from Port Vale, was handed a straight red after initially rushing off his line.

With no substitute goalkeeper on the bench, midfielder Ollie Banks had to play over 60 minutes in between the sticks.

🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/npCfbKkcte

— Edward Brunt (@edward_brunt) August 6, 2022

Despite this, Armando Dobra managed to extend Chesterfield’s lead before half time, however the Derbyshire outfit’s 10-men couldn’t hold on much longer and conceded twice from crosses. Banks was beaten for the first time in the 67th minute as James McShane had the honour of scoring Dorking’s first goal in the fifth tier, and Luke Moore grabbed an equaliser after 77 minutes.

Then Spireites left back Branden Horton was shown a second yellow card for ‘time-wasting.’

Cook had strong words for Covolan after the game, then sympathised more with Horton, claiming referee Wayne Cartmel’s decision was a ‘joke.’

“Discipline, for any team to be successful, is paramount and today we have let ourselves down with our discipline and we will deal with it, it is as simple as that,” Cook said.

“If Lucas has made a decision it is probably a decision which has probably cost us a win.

“It is something that Lucas will learn from quickly, if he doesn’t learn quickly he won’t be at the club, it is that simple.

“We have to come away from home and be able to trust our players, it doesn’t mean that they play well, but we trust them.

“But I have got to go on record and say the Branden’s (Horton) second yellow is one of the biggest jokes I have seen in football.

“The game is over, the time is up, Branden is not involved in the incident, Laurence Maguire has hold of the ball, he rolls it down the line to me, I put my foot on it and he gives Branden a second yellow card and a red.

“A little bit of criticism is that the league has decided to appoint someone who has never refereed at this level before for a game of this magnitude today, which was always going to be a spicy game, so surely we should have had an experienced referee.

“Fair play to the referee, I have had a chat with him after the game. We had a very amicable chat. I just didn’t get Branden’s sending-off, I just don’t get how he can give a decision like that with the game over to a lad who is not involved in an incident. So the referees have got to learn, I am all for them learning, and we lick our wounds and go away.”

On the game overall, as per Derbyshire Times: “Unfortunately today, down to 10-men and 2-0 up, I always felt we could probably hang on, but it was going to be about defending a lot of balls into our box.

“Unfortunately, Ollie has made a decision to come for one and if he had stayed we might have seen it out, but there is no criticism of Ollie in any way shape or form.

“We are disappointed that we have only got a point but it is a point towards where you want to go.”

Cook also admitted the sending-off of Covolan ‘caught us out.’

He said: “We made the decision to go without a goalkeeper on the bench, it is something the club has done since I have come here. It is probably something I have never done as a manager.

“You can’t say it has bit us because would we have conceded with a goalkeeper in? Who knows.

“Dorking came on very strong in the second-half and probably deserved something out of the game.”

In terms of injuries, Cook added: “There are one two niggles around the club, Kabongo Tshimanga is back training flat-out but he has four minutes of football and I didn’t want to risk him on this pitch. He has not had any minutes yet but he is fit and raring to go.

“George Cooper has had a little bit of swelling on his knee that has gone down.

“Calvin Miller has a little bit of swelling on his knee that has gone down as well.

“Mike Jones has been sick for two days but he will be back on Monday.”

Fans reacted as footage emerges of Chesterfield keeper Lucas Covolan red carded after an off-the-ball incident…

@KeaneMorley: Should never wear a shirt again for us

@argsquires: That doesn’t look like a continued running motion to me. It looks intentional. We were warned!

@RobCFC88: Deliberately

@mattybarbs: 100% deliberate

@jamesbray_: Calling that a stamp unfortunately

@CTinsley1378: Looks a clear stamp to me and intentional, best get another keeper in sooner rather than later.

@ASJD30: I’m 50/50 on this. The action looks like a stamp – action, never ever plays for the club again. The action looks like he jumps him and misses (but reaction is good if he doesn’t just clip him) – fine, education, we go again. Last chance

@wildcamperS41: Definitely a red card. He let us down massively today and he owes the travelling fans an apology.

@_hospital_pass: Last time he played for Vale he was sent off for kicking Harry Mckirdy – similar little snide kick to this that he thought was disguised enough to get away with – he just seems to have this in him – but you are welcome to him

@TMHG91: Covolan is a total prat. Is that the second time in 2 seasons he’s been sent off on the opening day?

@SpireiteC: football is a sport we are so invested in, lucas has made a f*ck up, but lets not get on his back straight away, admittedly I have been harsh on him too but any posts that have been made in anger please at least consider deleting if its ott. stupid mistake still plenty of time coyb

@MarkWibski: Silly twat. Deserved red. Get rid of him. Those lads worked their bollocks off today to scrape a point, when another day with ANY goalkeeper in the team we’d have strolled to an easy win. And judging by how much the port Vale fans lapped it up, he will do it again and cost more points.

@UK_Vikings: I feel for all the good signings we have made they could all be undone by this moron

@NurandGoody: Get rid now total idiot and Cook reassess having a keeper on the bench As Clough said the keeper is the most important position it can’t be covered by an outfielder but an outfielder can be covered by any other player

@tgilly82: That’s a red, what an idiot 🤦

@_Rammer: Deliberate stamp. I’ll be embarrassed if we try to contest the red card.

@sisyphus1961: Lucas psycho, he’s one of our own – still. Never learn. @OfficialPVFC #pvfc

@charlietabloid: Why the hell would you not have a sub keeper on day one? And if you don’t have one why would your starting keeper do this? Chesterfield decided to play Dorking without a sub keeper? And then their starting keeper did this to get sent off…

@kirky0712: Braindead

@TanniaCook: This was just shocking, obviously he has a reputation for doing such thing. Too right he got sent off. This should not happen in any football games

@Gubbed__: Get him out club #LooseCannon

@jessicarselol: what the hell was he thinking 🤦🏽‍♀️

@Ryannx97: Lucas Covalan is just a nutcase isn’t he

@sambingham2708: Cost us 3 points, simple as that. Ridiculous that!!

@brandonJLchambs: Three game ban at least. Didn’t fancy playing away at Notts County.

@naypentin: This lad will be lucky to still be with the club come Monday. What a idiot

@JackFlintham: What makes it worse is that he thinks he is being subtle – hopefully this is a learning curve for him #Spireites

@James_Poxon96: Get that idiot out our club, lost us two points in his first game, shambles

@MatthewProctor6: Can’t argue with that, it’s a red card. There was no need for it whatsoever.

@lukeCFC25: He obviously doesn’t learn. Don’t need him at our club if he can’t respect the team, manager or fans by making stupid decisions. #Spireites

@TomPike21: Wanker. Get him gone!

@Hilly3012: Absolutely braindead. Can’t even use the excuse it was accidental. He could have easily avoided their player and jumped over him. Very disappointing.

@SpireTweet: What’s he doing!