Source: Bournemouth_Echo
Cherries's Marvin: We didn't do ourselves justice
MARVIN Bartley ranked hapless referee Kevin Wright a zero out of 10, but insisted Cherries didn't do themselves justice at St Mary's.[LNB] The Cambridgeshire official left Eddie Howe's men fuming after awarding Saints two dubious penalties, both dispatched by Rickie Lambert, before waving away Steve Fletcher's shout for a second-half spot kick at the other end after Jose Fonte had appeared to barge the big striker in the back.[LNB] Rhoys Wiggins was penalised for handball early in the first half, although it appeared as if Lambert had pushed the defender on to the ball just inside the Cherries box.[LNB] Bartley, who was adjudged to have brought down Morgan Schneiderlin for Saints' second penalty, told the Echo: I think the man in the middle took centre stage because some of the decisions were diabolical.[LNB] It was embarrassing but he has a high pressure job and I've never been a referee so I can't say too much other than, in my opinion, he wasn't great.[LNB] I just tried to put my body in the way and I made minimal contact with him. He jumped and the referee gave it. But it's gone now and we can't do anything about it.[LNB] It's very frustrating. Rhoys says that Lambert barged him in the back and he fell on the ball. He had nowhere to go. Firstly I thought it was a foul on Rhoys and secondly, he had nowhere to fall but on the ball.[LNB] When asked if Cherries had been overawed by the intense build-up to the two clubs' first league game for 50 years, Bartley added: I don't think we did ourselves justice out there but fair play to Southampton for the way they played.[LNB] We've got a good set of boys here and we don't really take too much notice of the build up to a game.[LNB] It's just a game of football at the end of the day and professional footballers are paid to deal with big games. I don't think anyone was overawed by the game. I just think they got a result on the day and fair play to them.[LNB] The game was stretched and their midfielders were playing very deep to get on the ball. As midfielders there wasn't a lot we could do unless we had gone in after them but then you leave your back four exposed.[LNB] We'll look at the DVD and if anything needs to be said, it will after we've had time to look at it again and when we've all calmed down a bit on Monday.[LNB]
