Cleverley gives his view on other ‘disappointing’ refereeing decisions
As well as the Vakoun Bayo red card and the penalty not given to Watford, there were other decisions from the officials which went against the Hornets in the game with Norwich on Saturday.
Firstly, there was the free-kick which led to the only goal of the game.
“Soft, it was really soft,” said Tom Cleverley.
“I’m just disappointed to be honest. Dobbin threw himself to the ground.
“They are a team that do that very well. Every time there’s contact they throw themselves to the ground.
“I’m not saying that’s wrong. They’ve had great success doing it today.
“If you’re team that likes to take risks in possession then your ‘get out of jail free card’ is to throw yourself to the floor.
“But the referees have got to start understanding that and it was really poor that he’s been sold today.”
Then there was the yellow card for Cleverley himself, which came after the officials initially didn’t give a foul against Watford, but then changed their minds and did.
“I don’t know who made that decision,” said the Watford boss.
“It’s just part of a frustrating day and I hope the players know how proud I am of them because there’ll be no headlines about their performance when you lose and the referee has taken centre stage.
“It was a performance that is sustainable for the long term.
“I thought we were very solid in the second half with Ryan Andrews and James Abankwah coming into that back line and having good games.
“We created moments and they were still giving us a chance with the risk they take playing out from the back.
“We could smell that and we were on the front foot.
“It’s just that last little bit we lacked in their box that meant we’ve come out with points.”
New goalkeeper Egil Selvik was on the bench.
“I just wanted to let Egil realise the league and the chaotic nature of it,” the head coach explained.
“It was a decision we did a lot of analysing on and I thought it was the right thing to do.
“Bondy hasn’t let anyone down recently and he played fantastically well today.
“In a different position you maybe can come in from a different country, train for one day and go straight in.
“But goalkeeper is a little bit more significant.”
