Ferguson rues costly penalty decision in Windsor defeat

The Bangor official awarded the Blues a penalty on the stroke of half-time after Gary Thompson was adjudged to have fouled Gary Browne as the United player was in the middle of his backswing to clear the ball from the penalty area.

It was a decision which caused confusion with several players from both teams making their way out of the penalty area in the belief that a free kick had been awarded to Ballymena.

“There were maybe 1,500 spectators, 22 players, subs and coaching staff and there is one person in the ground who thought that was a penalty,” fumed Ferguson.

“I looked at the Linfield bench and I think, through embarrassment, David Jeffrey went back in and sat down.

“The Linfield players were laughing and Gary Browne said it was never a penalty. Gary Thompson is about to clear the ball and the player has kicked him from behind and the referee deems that a penalty.

“I’ve asked him if he has made a mistake, will he come out in public and apologise. Will he do it? Probably not. Even if he does, we’re out of the top six and he will still be doing a game next week somewhere.

“He said that in his opinion it was a penalty which, unfortunately is the only one that counts.

“Every week we say it behind closed doors about how bad some refereeing decisions are.

“We’ve had a couple of horrendous results recently but we’ve put in a performance on Saturday which probably warranted a point and we haven’t got it because of a refereeing decision.

“I’m disappointed for the players – they put so much into it with the limited squad we have and got nothing simply because of a bad decision.

“I just asked the players at half-time to have pride in their performance and pride in themselves and go out and put in a performance that if we get beat 2-0 they can go home and say they have given it everything.

“In the second half we did really well and responded well. Stuart Addis had a couple of crosses to punch, a shot to save in the first half and two goals to pick out so he didn’t have an awful lot to do.

“We didn’t create an awful lot ourselves but the chances we did create we should have got something from – David Cushley certainly should have scored,” added Glenn.