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[Darren]

Cote's quotes: Alty 2 Crawley Town 3
By Connor Murphy
Comment
GRAHAM Heathcote hit out at Blue Square Premier officials after his side's survival hopes were severely dented by a 3-2 defeat to Crawley on Tuesday night.

In the end, the Robins were well beaten but the game hinged on the sending off of Joe O'Neill on the stroke of half time.

When the Alty striker challenged for a high ball with Jamie Stevens it appeared to be innocuous enough but the referee had other ideas and gave him his marching orders for a second bookable offence.

 At that point, Alty were still level at 0-0 but, playing the entire second half with 10 men, they were simply unable to cope.

Jon Paul Pittman and Tyrone Thompson fired Crawley into a two-goal lead after the break and although Colin Little capitalised on a defensive mix-up to provide hope, Thomas Pinault's 84th minute screamer sealed the Robins' fate.

Little's injury time goal was nothing more than a consolation and, clearly hurting after the final whistle, Heathcote pointed the finger at the referee.

"You can say what you want but teams will probably not decide who stays up and who goes down, you're in the hands of a given individual's decisions," the Alty boss told SAM Sport.

"On Saturday the other team had two sent off and today it's gone the other way and that decided the game. It decided the game on Saturday and it decided the game today.

"It's not about the game of football, it's about officials sending players off. It's too easy to get sent off these days and it's affecting games dramatically.

"The referee said Joe led with his arm, which I really can't believe.

"He's refused to discuss any of his decisions with me and if an official refuses to discuss his decisions that says it all about his performance, although the assessor will probably give him 99 out of 100."

12:19pm today

[louise1925]

GH is right. 'Individual decisions' do make a difference. So why was Joe playing again?

[Altyant]

GH is right. 'Individual decisions' do make a difference. So why was Joe playing again?

I sometimes feel that Joe could score a hat trick and some people on here would still be critical of his selection.

[louise1925]

Well it would be nice to find out, wouldn't it?

[markecky]

Maybe Joe had trained well, looked sharp and was right up for playing.

 I've no idea if this is true but people do need to remember that GH sees a lot more of players than they do.

[Narcissist]

Can someone who knows stats take a look at how many alty goals are scored whilst joe is on the pitch compared to when he isnt in 2008.

Ive said this a few times, it cant be coincidence. Everyone who slags him off says we need a target man who can hold up the ball. Correct me if Im wrong but every side in England wants this and Joe is the best we'll get. Im not his biggest fan but our goal scoring record with him on the pitch says it all.

Id look up the stats myself but im on feeding/changing duty....its the best thing since stoke!

[Ballers]

For what it's worth Joe was playing very well before the sending off, sharpest he's looked for a while.

[blackpoolalty]

I agree I thought he won a fair few balls and also turned their defenders a couple of times

[samba]

I'm criticised Joe enough times, but I think on Tue he looked sharp as anything and really dangerous.  Starting to look like he's hitting a run of form, and if he hadn't been sent off I could easily have seen him bagging one or two.

[markecky]

I too can't understand the criticism of Joe.  The only thing i would say is his first touch often lets him down but he was often the victim of the fact he was winning flick-ons and no-one was behind him.

[Stockportalty]

There was a lot of niggling from both sides just before Joe was booked on both occasions, I think he was the one that the ref saw, so he was the one that was punished. It is interestng that Steve Evans says in his comments on the game "Joe O'Neill was making a real nuisance of himself". He was clearly upsetting the Crawley players by the way he was playing,  surely that is good.

Having stood in the tunnel all match, my ears are nearly recovered from the decibel levels  Mr Evans and his assistant were reaching. I don't think my ears could take that every week.

[gazwarrington]

Joe is the Jason of the current team. Maybe its the "J" in his first name that does it.

He won player of the season and still people were having a go, but people MUST have voted for him.

Sorry but it p*sses me off. He can play well for half hour, make a mistake on 31mins and everyone gets on his back. Its pathetic and not going to help anyone. Wouldn't mind if people clap as well when he does good as well as heckle but it seems that Joe never gets any credit just gets moaned at.

[louise1925]

I think that this thread merely sums up just how touchy Alty fans can be. As far as I'm aware, nobody was claiming that Joe was not a good player, or that he made no contribution to the team, or that he never gives 100%. I certainly didn't suggest that. What a number of fans were wondering was why he continues to get the nod over obviously more talented players. Maybe, Ecky is right. GH knows the players and understands more about what goes on behind the scenes than we do and maybe it has something to do with this. From our perspective though, it does look odd and this forum exists to discuss such issues, doesn't it?

[gazwarrington]

Who else have we got that can hold the ball up and use as a target man to wait for players to catch up with play ??

When Joe does not start the ball just comes back at us. Personally away from home I'd start him every game. Not the most talented but his attitude and ability to do the job of holding the ball up means he is worthy of a place in the team as far as I'm concerned.

I don't think Alty fans are 'touchy' I just think we care and thats a good thing 

and its is about opinions and mine is that people are too quck to have ago at him, I could be right, I could be wrong but thats my opinion.

[markecky]

This forum is all about opinions.

I just sometimes try and post a lttle more balanced view.  I suppose it comes from working at the club for a while and being with Bernard Taylor a lot when he was manager.  You would see so much more that fans would never know and it changed your perspective.

For example, a player who had been ill all week but we really needed him to play.  He did play but was poor.  You'd then get "I think x was so poor last night..kept giving away.." I don't think he looked bothered".  Its not the fans fault but there is often more to it.

Or a fans favourite who could do not wrong but was a complete t**t off the pitch (i could list a few).

 Everyone loved him on the pitch, he'd kiss the badge, clap the fans, he could do no wrong. 

Then he would be in on Monday demanding this is or that, or he would be late for training because he thought he could be, or cause trouble between players and a bad atmosphere.  The manager may have to take a stand and drop him to the bench for the sake of the other players and some harmony and discipline.  We'd lose 1-0.  He tell everyone in the bar after he was fit to play and that he would have scored the chance that his replacement missed.

No-one believe why the manager would be stupid enough to drop him...is he mad...does he not know anything..does he not want to win games?

Just trying to make the point really that its not just about the 90 mins we see.

Opinion are great..just don't expect me to agree with them all!