Chesterfield felt MK Dons should have had man sent off in draw for 'blatant' fouls
Chesterfield felt MK Dons were fortunate not to have had at least one man sent off in Sunday’s 2-2 draw.
Second-half goals from debutant Sam Curtis and substitute Will Grigg secured a point for the Spireites after they trailed 2-0 at the break after strikes from former Sheffield Wednesday man Callum Paterson and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy.
Grigg’s 94th minute equaliser means that Town are now unbeaten in seven away league games as they climbed back into the play-off positions, just one point behind MK who are fifth but they would have been third had they held on.
Referee Andrew Miller came in for some criticism from the Blues camp, with manager Paul Cook sent off with seconds remaining after receiving two yellow cards. First-team coach Paddy Byrne was also booked earlier in the game.
Their frustrations arose from what they deemed to be a lack of consistency when it came to showing yellow cards. Adam Lewis went into the referee’s book early on for his first foul, but in the second-half it was felt that one or two home players could have been given their marching orders but Miller opted not to show second yellows for ‘blatant’ fouls.
"It was really inconsistent from the referee I thought,” Gary Roberts said. “I thought the referee today was poor. We never really complain as much but I thought he was poor today. I thought he was really inconsistent with his yellow cards. We thought (Jon) Mellish and (Luke) Offord could easily have got sent off. He gave Adam Lewis a yellow card after three minutes after the first tackle in the game. I thought they could have gone down to 10-men a couple of times today. He (Mellish) could have been yellow carded in the first-half and two or three times in the second-half. Blatant fouls. It is a tough job but be consistent.”
Chesterfield return to action on Saturday at home to Colchester United who are ninth and four points behind the Spireites.