Southend United manager Phil Brown has blamed Premier League referee Andre Marriner for their 1-0 defeat to Millwall at The Den.
The Blues were reduced to ten-men when Will Atkinson was dismissed for a late challenge on Tony Craig on 34 minutes, before the Blues were controversially denied a penalty when Jermaine McGlashan was deliberately fouled in the box.
Overall, Brown felt that the Premier League official got both decisions wrong. “It was never a red card and we should definitely have had a penalty,” exclaimed the Southend boss.
“Will is a genuine player but when Premier League refs come down to this level they don’t know the players.
“Their job is to know what’s out there, who the good boys are and who the bad boys are but Andre Marriner hasn’t got a clue who Will Atkinson is.
“He’s genuinely gone in for a challenge and I thought it was worthy of a yellow card.
“But the ref has said he’s gone over the top and gone to do the player but none of that is in Will’s character so he hasn’t done his job properly.
“Jermaine hasn’t dived either, it was a clear penalty and that could have got us something from the game. Maybe we could have won if it was 11 v 11 and it’s tough to take because he’s also denied us an opportunity to get an equaliser.
“We will be appealing the sending off,” stated Brown. “The arrogance stands against us and there’s probably not a chance of him taking it on because he said it was a red straight away.
“There’s no malice in Will Atkinson at all, he was in tears at half-time apologising to people but we all told him to shut up. It’s not him who should be apologising to us, it’s Andre Marriner who should be coming in and saying sorry.”
