So the Charlton boss has to mouth off after the match; whereas CC mentioned that both sides would have felt unhappy, Pardew seems to have gone on a crusade and obviously feels that the only reason Charlton didn’t win was because the dice were loaded against his team by the man in black. Listen to both managers here. Then, in this interview, Pardew talks about Kelvin Wilson’s reprieve:
“I don’t want to see any players sent off but, by the letter of the law, he was the last man. Wes Morgan would not have got across to catch Varney,”
Hmmm, sounds to me more like, “I don’t want to see any players sent off, but he should have been sent off”. I too think that Kelvin probably could have walked, but you should choose your words more carefully.
If the above point is just me being pedantic, then I think this proves that Pardew is taking things to extremes; he is suggesting that teams should ignore the “Respect” agenda to which all clubs have subscribed:
“Do we need to put the referee under pressure to make him give decisions that are the right ones?”
The “right ones”? For whom? However, this is the one that really takes the biscuit:
“My teams play with discipline.”
You mean like Luke Varney, falling over at the slightest nudge then getting up to moan at the referee about it? Or maybe like Nicky Bailey, who would have had a decent match for the Addicks, had he not spend half of it on the floor? Or what about Grant Basey, who was seemingly destined for A&E after his clash with Matt Thornhill, but was fine after just a minute of treatment on the sidelines?
Let’s get this straight, the referee was poor, and made bad decisions – against both teams (witness Chris Cohen having five fouls given against him, despite the fact that he barely made a challenge; or maybe Matt Thornhill being booked for winning the ball in the air).
Just like there should be consequences for the referee, I hope that what goes around, comes around for Alan Pardew if he continues to spout rubbish like this.
On a separate issue, Pardew also seems to claim that Chris Cohen was the best player on the pitch – as a direct result of the fact that he was introduced to the West Ham first team by … Alan Pardew.
