Steve
Evans has accused referee Darren Bond of being “rubbish” every time he takes
charge of Rotherham.
Bond
was the man in the middle for the Millers’ 2-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest on
Saturday and Evans felt aggrieved at two decisions which changed the course of
the game at the City Ground.
After
Danny Collins gave the Millers an early lead against his former club, Forest
levelled in the dying embers of the first half through Matt Mills from the
second phase of a corner, which Evans says should have been a goal-kick.
Then
straight after the break, Jordan Bowery’s goalbound shot appeared to be
stopped on the line by Forest defender Eric Lichaj’s hand.
But
Bond waved play on and Forest escaped, going on to bag a 61st-minute
winner through Michail Antonio to leave Evans fuming at the official’s
performance.
“There
are a lot of reasons why we lost,” Evans said. “I think the performance was
excellent, all over the pitch we played with a lot of energy.
“There
were some outstanding performances and we were harshly let down by the
officials.
“We’re not going to make that a reason, they had two chances to score and they scored two goals.
“We don’t expect anything from that referee. He’s rubbish every
time we’ve had him.
“I’m not saying he’s a rubbish referee, I’m saying he’s rubbish
every time we have him. That’s just one of these things that happen.
“We’ll make the calls like we always do, and the head of referees
will look at it and he’ll phone me up on Monday and tell me it should have been
a red card and a penalty to Rotherham but we had a lot of that last year.
“The first goal they gave a corner in the build-up to it, the boy
has run it out of play, the referee lets an assistant referee from 90 yards
away give a corner.”
On the penalty incident, Evans added: “It’s a great move down the
right hand side, it’s a great cross in, Jordan has a great strike, it goes past
the goalkeeper, the lad on the line has almost caught it, it bounces away.”
Evans was much more positive about his side’s performance,
although it ended in a second successive defeat – the first time Rotherham have
lost their opening two league games since 2006/07.
The Scot is enthused about the Millers’ chances this season if
they can replicate the manner of their display at the City Ground.
“It’s disappointing when you put so much into an afternoon,” he
said.
“Last week we were down, but if we play like
that we will come away with a lot of points in the Championship, that is for
sure.
“We
have come to play a fantastic football club, in Forest, with good, good players
and we are really pleased with our performance.
“We
will get better as well, some of the players will get fitter and I go away
really encouraged by what I’ve seen today.
"As
I said, if we perform like that for the rest of the season in the Championship,
we will get a lot of points. More than we got last season.”
