Paul Cook claims refereeing standards are at an ‘all-time low’ after his Chesterfield side lose 2-1 to Harrogate Town.
The Sulphurites ended a run of three straight league defeats thanks to Dean Cornelius netting a late winner in the first minute of stoppage-time.
Spireites substitute James Berry had cancelled out Toby Sims’ second-half opener, and Chesterfield felt they were hard done by with controversial decisions made by the referee John Mulligan.
A free kick was harshly awarded against Armando Dobra who felt had clearly won the ball in stead of being deemed to have committed a foul. The ball rattled the inside of Ryan Boot’s left-hand upright, then fell to Sims, who netted from 12 yards.
Then the ball appeared to strike referee John Mulligan in the build-up to Harrogate’s winner but play continued.
Paul Cook says he thinks refereeing standards are at an ‘all-time low.’
But he also accepted today’s performance wasn’t up to scratch and said some players are ‘idling.’
Reaction:https://t.co/disBFlGQ9a #Spireites
— Liam Norcliffe (@LiamNorcliffe) November 16, 2024
Paul Cook said, per Derbyshire Times: “I spoke to Mike Jones (head of refereeing in EFL) on Monday and I have spoken to him six or seven Mondays.
“I just feel the standards of refereeing is at an all-time low.
“I really feel sorry for Mike and the referees’ association because we are continually having the same arguments after games and it is not fair.
“I don’t want to slag referees off.
“We are all going to get bad decisions but it doesn’t feel like we are getting any type of run where we don’t speak about the referee and that is worrying.
“I am sure Mike will get a lot more phone calls on Monday but he won’t be getting one from me.
“I don’t want to sound like sour grapes, it is not my style, Harrogate deserved something out of the game for their honesty and work ethic.”
Cook added, on his side’s defeat: “It is a tough one to take.
“I didn’t enjoy the game.
“I never thought we had control of it.
“At the minute we don’t look like a team who have loads of clean sheets in us.
“Offensively, you then have to create chances and we probably struggled to create chances against an organised and hard-working Harrogate team.
“They (Harrogate) had a goal which looked close to being a good goal scored (which was ruled out) and then they scored again.
“We just don’t have any sort of concept of putting our hands up in a boxing fight.
“We are just open.
“I have said before, we have got loads of good players, but we are not a good team yet. It is my job to get it right.
“When we go away from home I want to be like our fans where we know what we are going to get out of the team and I don’t feel that is the case at the minute. I feel we have a few people who are just idling shall we say.
“We should have finished the game around their 18-yard box trying to create a chance to win the game, not defending our own goal as open as hell and that is on me with the subs, the subs left us a bit open.
“We should have been more purposeful in our build-up play to score a winner and to stop counters.
“We didn’t have any shape to stop a counter-attack and Harrogate just ran through us.”
LISTEN | Danny Webb on Chesterfield’s late 2-1 defeat at Harrogate Town.
The result means the Spireites sit at 11th in League Two.
🎧👉https://t.co/Lvj0DPrBGJ#Spireites | @BBCSheffield pic.twitter.com/0rD0QodwSk
— Football Heaven (@footballheaven) November 16, 2024
Phil Tooley said on the club website: “I didn’t think the free-kick for Harrogate’s opener was a foul.”
And added: “The laws of the game state that if the ball hits the referee and aids a ‘promising attack’ a drop-ball should be awarded.
“I was well positioned on the side of the ground where that happened and remain convinced that play should have been halted for that reason.
“Other views may differ, and the camera angle doesn’t convey the full effect of the coming together of ball and official.
“Controversial, but a salutary lesson in playing the circumstances and playing to the whistle.”
Tooleys Take, reflecting on yesterday’s game at Harrogate Town 👇https://t.co/VMPUeYwPQO pic.twitter.com/MKsM9aeuAf
— Chesterfield FC (@ChesterfieldFC) November 17, 2024
Harrogate boss Simon Weaver said, per Harrogate Advertiser: “I’m ecstatic, to be honest. We wanted to be aggressive and be on the front foot and press with intensity, and we’ve risen to the occasion today.
“I think we deserved it overall, I think that the fighting spirit was there for all to see against a top team. It was a great team effort.
“Our thought-process was just ‘win the game’. Before the game and at half-time, we just wanted to win both halves by playing attacking, intense football that people want to see.
“We’ve had a bit of adversity with them scoring, and then with their four fresh substitutes on, they probably believed, did Chesterfield, and our players could be forgiven for thinking ‘ooof, we’ve got to go again’, but I thought we would have the character to do that – and it was fantastic that we did.”
The result sees Harrogate sitting 17th in the League Two table with 18 points from 16 games, while Chesterfield drop to 11th with 22 points from 15 games.
Here’s how fans reacted as Paul Cook claims refereeing standards are at an ‘all-time low’ after Chesterfield lose to Harrogate…
@benaramsdale: Neither of their goals should have happened (wasn’t a free-kick and the ball hit the ref but he didn’t pause play) but it doesn’t take away from another really poor performance. We’re miles off it at the moment.
@Bodie0402: A tough game. Harrogate made it difficult but we just didn’t respond. Ball hit the ref in the build up to their winner, but we just need to deal with it better. Keep getting behind the lads
@YouBloodyReds: Madness. That ball is over hit and going to a Chesterfield player, hits the ref and lands to a Harrogate player… they break and score, proper mental.
@WorcsSpireites: Robbed by an inept official. Yes we didn’t play well again, did we deserve to concede after the balls hit the ref no, did we deserve to win no. Refs so far this season are WORSE than the level below. Rant over. All town aren’t we. #Spireites
@OliverCrowther4: We cannot defend where is everyone
@We_Are_Sailing: ball hit ref and he didn’t stop it?
@sambingham2708: The tracking back, absolutely embarrassing. Some strolling back.
@abbo_abb: He is not wrong. That backpass near the end was an abysmal decision too
@CfcCrookes: Playing Naylor at the back constantly is worse than the refereeing decisions
@GaryGorman: Far too predictable until the subs came on, Berry in particular made a difference. Poor ref but even poorer performance from us. We don’t trouble the opposition keeper enough.
@ian_whitbychand: Do the referees actually know the laws of the game is my first question.
@Carl_G_CFC: Stop blaming the refs. We got what we deserved.
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