The 'atrocious' tale of wrong decisions, narrated by Steve Evans ... Reading 2 Rotherham United 1
‘ATROCIOUS’ reared its head twice. Then came an ‘unfair’ which was soon upgraded to ‘disgraceful’.
Steve Evans has a long-held reputation for venting his spleen at referees, sometimes in circumstances when it's not quite warranted.
This time, the manager very much had a point. Sadly, his Rotherham United team had none, robbed of all three by a series of decisions from the officials that ranged from head-shaking to inept.
There was a possible offside that went unseen as Reading took the lead on their to a 2-1 victory at the Select Car Leasing Stadium that kept them in ninth spot in League One and the Millers in 14th.
There was the Rotherham goal that almost certainly should have stood yet didn't.
There was the Royals own goal that simply had to be awarded but was ruled out.
And there was the 93rd-minute penalty that wasn't really a penalty which condemned the visitors to an undeserved loss.
Atrocious, unfair, disgraceful, as a certain angry Scot might say. He ran through each of the incidents …
Reading had taken a 24th-minute lead when Harvey Knibbs was left with a tap-in after a Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan effort that hit the woodwork and a follow-up from Jayden Wareham was parried by Dillon Phillips.
“It's clearly offside by the boy who has the second shot. There's a strike from distance that comes off the post. When the ball comes off the post, it goes to somebody who's been standing offside.”
In the 38th minute, Jordan Hugill's first-time connection on Joe Powell's cross looked to have brought an equaliser only for the whistle to blow for a foul.
“It was just two players barging each other. They get the advantage of that.”
In the second half, following Sam Nombe's penalty leveller for a handball no-one on either side disputed, Powell ran in from the left and home defender Amadou Mbengue headed into his own net only for the score to remain at 1-1.
We'll get to what Evans thought of that later.
The contest was deep into stoppage when Knibbs fell under virtually no contact from Zak Jules and picked himself up to convert from the spot.
“I think it's very soft. Zak's arms are up so he gives the referee the option to give a penalty. It looked like the ref was going to take an option if he was given one. The standard of refereeing is reaching the stage where every manager is getting concerned.”
The manager was booked for his protests. But we're not talking about the man in Rotherham's technical area here, it was Reading's Noel Hunt whose name went into Thomas Parsons' notebook.
The referee had managed to infuriate both sides so much that Royals supporters were singing 'You don't know what you're doing' rather than Millers ones.
Evans continued to pull on his mental Thesaurus and ‘shocking’ and ‘travesty’ popped up in his tirade.
Between controversies, a game was taking place. Reading had the better of the first half and Rotherham enjoyed a degree of dominance in spells in the second. They did enough to earn at least a draw and wouldn't have been flattered by a victory.
Before the break, Charlie Savage twice forced Phillips into action, Millers old boy Lewis Wing smacked a post and Nombe somehow contrived to hook the ball over the bar from point-blank range.
“It's a big chance for any striker at this level,” Evans said. “We always say to our strikers: ‘Big chances and little chances will be missed, you have to be prepared to go back in.’ Sam stood up to the test and finished the penalty really well.”
After the interval, Phillips foiled Andre Garcia with the save of the game, Powell had a shot blocked on the line and later brought a stop from Joel Pereira and Mallik Wilks was denied by the home goalkeeper when he was clean through.
“First half, we weren't really at it,” Evans said. “I'm pleased we've gone in 1-0 down rather than 2-0 down.
“Second half, we changed the shape, we changed the system. There was only one team trying to win. We questioned the boys at half-time and when we do that they usually react. We needed more energy all over the pitch, more belief, more commitment.
“Hunty's won the Lottery today, hasn't he? If he's an honest man, he'll say it. I really feel for the boys.”
When Saturday’s dust had settled, Rotherham were left contemplating a four third-tier reverse in their last six outings.
The boss was running low on new ways to describe his disdain for what he'd witnessed and contented himself with a third ‘atrocious’.
Among all the injustices, the worst was arguably the disallowed own goal. Rotherham were on top and a goal – and the lead – then would, in all likelihood, have paved the way for them to go on to win.
Parsons took note of a wrongly-raised flag so the assistant referee was just as culpable on that one.
“I think it's a bigger moment than the late penalty,” Evans said. "We're totally dominant in the game, we're attacking with ease really. We're opening them up and getting shots on goal.
“I can't believe that a defender heads the ball into his own net with a diving header and then the referee decides that a player four or five yards away, competing with the centre-back in the the six-yard box, is offside and interfering with the goalkeeper's line of vision.”
We've all seen a replay, haven't we?
No words.
Reading (4-3-3): Joel Pereira; Michael Craig, Amadou Mbengue, Tyler Bindon, Andre Garcia (Abraham Kanu 90+4); Harvey Knibbs, Lewis Wing, Charlie Savage; Chem Campbell (Kelvin Abrefa 87), Jayden Wareham (Mamadi Camara 68), Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan (Billy Bodin 87). Subs not used: David Button, Tivonge Rushesha, Louie Holzman.
Rotherham (4-1-3-2): Dillon Phillips; Joe Rafferty, Hakeem Odoffin, Zak Zules, Reece James; Cameron Humphreys; Kelly Mpanzu, Louie Sibley (Mallik Wilks 76), Joe Powell; Jordan Hugill (Jonson Clarke-Harris 76), Sam Nombe (Josh Kayode 90). Subs not used: Cameron Dawson, Jack Holmes, Andre Green, Ben Hatton.
Goals: Knibbs 24, pen 90+3 (Reading); Nombe pen 57 (Rotherham)
Referee: Thomas Parsons (Lancashire)
Attendance: 10,034 (322)