Salford’s Karl Robinson criticises official on red card decision ‘changed game’ against Chesterfield

Salford’s Karl Robinson criticises official on the red card decision for Hakeeb Adelakun which ‘changed game’ against Chesterfield.

Robinson hit out at the officiating, particularly the assistant referee’s decision-making, furious over the red card call for Adelakun due to an off-the-ball incident with Chesterfield’s Jack Sparkes.

He argued that Salford were performing well with 11 players and that the dismissal shifted the momentum, allowing Chesterfield to dominate.

His comments also extended to broader dissatisfaction with the assistant referee’s performance, including a claim of a missed offside call earlier in the game, which may invite scrutiny from the Football Association (FA) given his history of fines for similar outbursts.

The result sees Chesterfield sitting 14th with 48 points from 35 games played, 8 points from the League Two playoff places, while Salford are 11th with 50 points from 36 games played and 6 points from safety.

🗣️ “You’re talking over 70 mins playing with 10 men, it’s almost impossible”

🦁 Ammies fans, should Adelakun have been sent off?

🎧 Listen to what Karl Robinson had to say on @BBCSounds.

📱 Salford latest: https://t.co/84cwxxILZ7#SalfordCity #bbcfootball

— BBC Sport Manchester (@BBCRMsport) March 11, 2025

Robinson said, per Derbyshire Times: “I felt at 11 v 11 we were the better team, I thought we had two or three opportunities that we never took. The sending off changed the game. I thought even when we went down to 10-men we looked really good, I thought we had some really good opportunities.”

“The lad (Sparkes) has stamped on Haks, on his toe, and Haks has just swiped at his lower legs. You can’t knock the opposition’s player, he went down really well and managed to get the decision that they wanted. I can’t grumble at the way they acted. I can see why he thinks he has actually kicked him and lashed out which would be borderline, for me, a yellow card. But the way it goes against us, it was always going to be a red.

“I don’t trust the assistant referee today, his performance was so far off, it was unacceptable. There were two offside decisions in the first-half which you must have seen our bench go crazy at. So how can I trust him to get the big decisions right if he can’t get the easy ones?”

Assistant manager Danny Webb said, per Derbyshire Times: “I still think it will be a hard task. The gaffer has just said that if you go and win at Notts County on Saturday then the table looks a bit better. We can’t get carried away. Let’s get in that top half and take it from there. It’s not mathematically impossible. We have got to continue this form. We have got another game in hand. Who knows.”

Webb said on the red card: “A sending off always helps but it can still be tough to beat 10-men. I have had three or four reports back from the FA this season on red cards that the opposition should have had but didn’t so we are due a little bit of things going our way. I think (Adelakun) he kicked out.”

Twitter users reacted as Salford’s Karl Robinson criticises the official on the red card decision which the ‘changed game’ against Chesterfield…

@robcowlishaw: Another deluded manager refusing to accept he was beaten by a better team on the night regardless of the red card.

@AFranks07:
Referee hasn’t seen it
Linesman hasn’t flagged
Chesterfield Protest… Red Card 🥱
I’d like to see a clear angle of this so called incident because tonight’s officiating was yet again appalling.

@ffscurt: without being too bias, genuinely thought the officials had a good game last night. be quite easy for lino to shy away from making a decision, but got it spot on. ref pulled them up on the constant shoving in the back. forced them to try and play football, evidently they can’t.

@markanday_stay: His interview was pure bollocks

@MMelville9: If you teach your team to play dirty football then you have to except the consequences. They have been the dirtiest team to visit Chesterfield and last night was no different. Even in the first 20 minutes Chesterfield was the better team and deserved the win.

@CFC_JAY91: 🧂 🧂 🧂

@jonbranson: Probably a good chance he will have had the boot from Salford before any potential touchline ban comes his way…

@thomkat1612: He has and always will be one mardy asshole. He is lucky their number 10 didn’t get sent off for a lunge near the dugouts and then the one on Sheckleford how he didn’t even get a yellow is beyond me