Rylands see red and surrender two-goal lead at Workington

by John Hopkins

WARRINGTON Rylands surrendered a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 at Workington AFC in a match where a series of controversial decisions by the officials had a major impact on the game.

Looking to bounce back from Saturday’s heavy 5-0 home defeat to Redcar Athletic, The Blues made the perfect start.
A cross from Jawad Jebrin found George Waring, who cleverly headed the ball down rather than toward goal, allowing Ben Hardcastle to run onto it and fire Rylands into an early lead.
Rylands then came close to doubling their advantage when Workington goalkeeper Alex Mitchell left his goal to chase a ball near the touchline. Mitchell failed to reach it, and Wood quickly took the resulting throw-in, with Waring narrowly missing the vacant net.
However, the game changed dramatically in first-half injury time. Waring rose to challenge for a header as Workington captain Brad Carroll jumped into him and went to ground. Referee Alexander Beckett produced a red card for Waring, leaving those around the pitch stunned. It was understood that an assistant referee had heard Waring use an offensive word.
Despite being reduced to ten men, Rylands doubled their advantage just five minutes into the second half.
Harrison Wood collected a pass from Charlie Munro and charged through the Workington defence, shrugging off the challenge of Matthew Douglas before calmly beating Mitchell to make it 2-0.
Manager Neil Reynolds was frustrated by a number of decisions that he felt had gone against his side.
“There were so many decisions that needlessly went against us – when you’re defending the wind against 11 men and the noise of the crowd against you, it’s really hard and these guys are just human beings,” said Reynolds.
One of those decisions came when Wood chased down a long kick, won possession and raced toward goal, only to be pulled back by a Workington defender. Despite being the last defender, the player received only a yellow card.
Workington eventually turned the game around, scoring three times to complete the comeback and leave Rylands empty-handed.
Then, five minutes into injury time, Hardcastle was shown a red card after going into what appeared to be a 50-50 challenge, with Beckett immediately reaching for his red card.
Reynolds was left perplexed by the performance of the referee and his team of officials.
“I’m not condoning red cards but if you play football or sport at a certain level, you play with passion, character and emotion,” he said.
“When you see decisions go against you time and time and time again, there’s only so much you can handle.”