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Halifax boss slams referee as bizarre incident sees Luke Summerfield sent off against Southend

Halifax boss slams referee Chris Millington as a bizarre incident sees Luke Summerfield sent off against Southend on Saturday.

Wes Fonguck had put the Shrimpers ahead after Jack Bridge opted to pass instead of shooting, and Wes’ effort went all the way into the far corner on 51 minutes.

However, shortly after, Summerfield was handed a straight red card. Southend saying the referee appears to be suggesting it’s for an elbow.

The Shaymen then fought back to pick up a point as Adam Senior made it 1-1.

Footage of the incident was quickly uploaded onto social media and is getting thousands of views…

“I just don’t get it,” Halifax boss Chris Millington said on Summerfield’s sending off, as per Halifax Courier. “The referee’s probably not helped himself by just going to his pocket immediately, he’s not really given himself any time to make such a big decision.

“I’m going to speak to him at the earliest possible opportunity and I’ll be interested to hear why he’s been so quick to go to his card and not weigh up the situation and what had happened.

“Luke Summerfield was clotheslined by him, he’s been hit in the windpipe and he’s flinched, and the referee thinks that that flinch is an attack on him.

“It’s absolutely clear from the footage I’ve just been shown that it isn’t that.

“We know there’s not a player in this squad who would verbally abuse a referee let alone physically abuse a referee and then when you take it to the next level, Luke Summerfield is the least likely person I’ve ever met to do either of those things.

“The ref’s made a big mistake, and massively impacted the game, but hopefully he’ll learn from it and we won’t experience that when he’s here the next time.

“My instinct is that we will. I can’t see how it can possibly be upheld when the referee has clotheslined a player, it seems like an easy one to fix on behalf of the FA.

“If the referee’s suggesting that he’s physically attacked him then god knows what they could do.

“It was a game of two halves wasn’t it, although they’ve only really had the one serious opportunity in the first-half they were definitely the better team.

“I thought we looked a bit tired, a bit leggy, I’m not exactly sure why that is, but I definitely felt that was the case in the first-half.

“It looked like we were going to start the second-half bright and then they wrestled control and then scored.

“It can sometimes help you to have more of a common enemy than just the opposition and today we did, we had the opposition and the officials gave us something to overcome as well with some of their decisions.

“We couldn’t keep possession, I don’t know what was wrong with us. We were very, very sloppy when we regained the ball

“We weren’t as sharp in terms of what we did without the ball, which felt uncharacteristic, and when we regained it, we had two or three really good passages of play to get us into the opposition half but then we turned over possession really quickly when we regained it and countered, we gave it them back way too quickly.

“It wasn’t through any good work of Southend, it was just poor, sloppy play on our part.

“I can’t quite put my finger yet on why that was, we’ll have a good review and look at the last few days and this morning’s preparation to see if there’s anything we could’ve done differently to increase the energy levels.

“But the paradox there is when Luke Summerfield’s got sent-off, all of a sudden it looks like they’ve had a real boost of energy and they’ve come out fighting.”

On Southend’s goal, Millington said: “I think it looked soft, but as we’re speaking now I’ve not seen it back and I’ve not had a clear image of how they worked it, but it did look like a soft goal to concede.”

Here’s what Twitter users had to say as the Halifax boss slams referee on the bizarre incident which sees Luke Summerfield sent off against Southend in the National League fixture…

@MartinL75279040: The worst part is the ref clearly realises what he’s done, looks to see if the player is alright and then brandishes the red card. Instinct kicked in initially, then he brandished the card to try cover his mistake. Unbelievable Jeff 🙄

@YorkshirePundit: How will @refsupportuk explain this one?

@AustinWash84: The ref wouldn’t have sent him off if the Southend player didn’t clearly ask the ref for a card then back away with his hands up because he knew what he’d said was wrong too

@PercySugdenWAFC: Consistently the worst referee at that level. Awful.

@Frigbo: Haha. What kind of decision is that??!!

@michiganjayoli: Rare lack of spatial awareness from Summerfield, but how can there be any intent interpreted in this?

@bluemoon219: Another ref apology incoming

@MiaHartley19: Absolutely disgusting and horrible the ref

@Martyrobbz: Ref has had a mare here

@IainGavin3: Can’t wait for @refsupportuk to blame this on the player

@JoeEdws: As a referee, fans shouldn’t know your name. You only know the names of the shite ones. The issue with Marsden is everyone dreads when you see it is him reffing your game, what a self obsessed wanker he is

@keevs_89: Good old fucking Marsden ey. What a twat that fella is. May as well have lamped him and took the red.

@hxfoyboy1988: The sad thing is despite the footage it won’t get overturned either.

@sam_jeffs: Sack this ref immediately. Everyone makes mistakes but I dread to think how bad he really is

@bh_bryn: Haha fuck off. National League embarrassing

@jonesnsenoj: 😭😭😭 absolutely unbelievable. Rip the entire PGMOL up and start again

@stewillz08: Year after year you would dread seeing the name Paul Marsden as referee for your club, incompetent and truly embarrassing

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