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Referee earns Hodgson wrath

23 Oct 2009 - 07:33:26

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Roy Hodgson was critical of the standard of refereeing after Fulham were denied a famous victory over Italian giants AS Roma.

Thursday's Europa League group stage clash at Craven Cottage ended in a 1-1 draw after Roma salvaged a last-gasp equaliser through Marco Andreolli.

However, much of Hodgson's ire was aimed at referee Paul Allaerts after his 76th minute decision to award Roma a penalty.

They were awarded a spot-kick when John Arne Riise was upended by Stephen Kelly, who was sent off.

Kelly was only shown the red card after the referee had initially shown it to Brede Hangeland in error.

Mark Schwarzer saved the spot-kick but afterwards Hodgson blamed the controversial decision for his side conceding at the death.

He explained: "If you watch the penalty decision on the video it was quite a harsh one. I'm not 100 per cent sure there was contact.

"Kelly has tried quite hard to stay out of the way because he knew Riise was looking for the penalty.

"The sending off I can't really understand. Hangeland was coming across to try and get a block in.

"The penalty was awarded so I can't understand why the referee felt it necessary for us to play the last 15 minutes with 10 men.

"Referees make wrong decisions. We already know that. He selected the wrong man.

"I would like to have seen the assistant referee make it clear to the referee it wasn't a foul in the first instance.

"Roma won with the very last kick of the game with a deflected goal so obviously we feel aggrieved."