Refs tell Royals boss to ‘appeal more’

Reading manager Brian McDermott has revealed that referees have told him to tell his players ‘to appeal more’ and decisions may go more in their favour.

The Royals have found themselves on the back of a number of poor refereeing decisions in some of their Premier League encounters so far this campaign, most recently against Newcastle. Demba Ba clearly handled the ball into the net for the Magpies’ equaliser, but referee Andre Marriner did not give it, despite having a clear view of the incident.

Speaking to the Sky Sports News, McDermott said: ‘My concern slightly, or more than slightly, is the conversations with two people now; the match delegate at the Chelsea game said that my players didn’t appeal for the Torres offside goal, and the fourth official said to my goalkeeping coach that only two of my players appealed.’

‘If we appeal for every decision we might get one or two? The last thing we want is for our players to start trying to referee the game, we have to let the referee and the assistant referees get on with their job and that is what we are trying to do. So that is the concern for me, the two separate things that have been said to me.’

On the topic of referees, our referee for this afternoon’s game will be Mike Dean and some may view him as a lucky omen for the Royals. The last Reading game he officiated was in April, as Reading beat league leaders Southampton 3-1 at St Marys to top the Championship table. Let’s hope lightning strikes twice in Wales today!