Ipswich Town boss McKenna doesn’t share Charlton counterpart’s damning referee assessment
Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna did not share the view of his Charlton counterpart Ben Garner on the performance of the match officials in today’s 4-4 draw at The Valley.
Garner was sent off in the second half for his reaction after the visitors were awarded a free-kick after a tackle made by George Dobson. Town went on to score through Tyreece John-Jules, even though the initial set-piece did not come off.
The Addicks chief was hugely critical of Josh Smith and fourth official James Oldham.
Garner claimed that Smith, who reffed the Championship top-of-the-table clash between Sheffield United and Norwich the previous weekend, was not up to the standard to even take charge of a fixture in League One.
Eleven of Smith’s 13 matches this season have been Championship ones.
McKenna said: “It was a good game and the referee reffed it well, in general. It wasn’t easy with a crowd who are, of course, looking for all the decisions to the home team.
“The officials did a good job.
“We’ve had plenty of our share of incidents that we feel aggrieved by and I could easily sit here and list them – like every team could do – but my approach is, within reason, to focus on ourselves and control what we can control.
“Referees are there in general doing their best and as long as there is an honest performance, which I thought today the referee was, and tried to make the right decisions, they can make mistakes as well as both sets of players and staff can do.
“I’d rather focus on the game, the good things we did and the things we can improve.”
PICTURES: PAUL EDWARDS
