Portsmouth Football Club

• Nickname:Pompey
• Founded:1898
• Manager:Guy Whittingham

• Ground:Fratton Park
• Capacity:19179

Harry: Refs need help

02 Oct 2006 - 08:31:59

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Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp insists the referee told him he was wrong to award Tottenham a penalty in Sunday's match between the two sides at White Hart Lane.

Redknapp says Chris Foy apologised to him at half-time for awarding a spot-kick when Didier Zokora fell to the ground even though he was not touched by Pompey's Pedro Mendes.

The successful penalty put Spurs 2-0 ahead and, although Kanu pulled a goal back for the visitors, Martin Jol's side hung on to win 2-1.

Redknapp said Foy told him: "I'm sorry, Harry, I've made a big mistake."

And the Pompey boss added: "He didn't make a mistake on purpose. Referees need help out there.

"I saw from the big screen that it was no way a penalty about 10 seconds before it was taken. So why can't the fourth official, who is wired up to the referee, have a monitor by the side of the pitch and tell the ref what really happened?

"The boy dived and the penalty has cost us dear. People say diving has become too frequent but it's always happened.

"Surely we should use the technology to stamp it out and put things right. It was not much different to the Ben Thatcher incident a few weeks ago when he was only booked for that terrible challenge on Pedro.

"We've got to do something about things like this. The referee Dermot Gallagher wanted to help us after his mistake at Manchester City and I'm sure this referee does now as well. But nobody can. I certainly can't do anything about it."