O'Neill sorry over outburst
26 Aug 2007 - 09:10:09
Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill apologised to referee Steve Bennett after being ordered to the stands during his side's 2-1 victory over Fulham.
O'Neill confronted Bennett as he left the pitch at half-time, unhappy at the amount of injury time that had been played.
However, he said after Villa hit back to take all three points on their own patch: "The referee was right. I shouldn't be publicly remonstrating with him coming off the field.
"I should have waited until we got to the privacy of the dressing room. I thought - probably wrongly now - that a Fulham player was down injured for the two minutes extra added on at the end of the first half.
"The referee told me at half-time that he had played two and a half minutes. I apologise to him. I should not have remonstrated like I did.
"It was different watching the game from up above, but it would have been an injustice if we had not have won.
"There are these new sort of phones I am incapable of using, so I got the steward sat next to me to send down the message to put Shaun Maloney on."