Oxford boss Robinson ‘furious’ with referee despite comfortable Newport win

Posted Wednesday, August 29, 2018 by PA

Oxford manager Karl Robinson was critical of the referee despite his side progressing to the third round of the Carabao Cup with a 3-0 win over Newport.

An own goal from Mickey Demetriou, a stunning strike from Shandon Baptiste and a late goal from Gavin Whyte was enough to eliminate Michael Flynn’s side.

However, a late red card for Oxford’s Jamie Hanson due to a clumsy challenge on Antoine Semenyo soured an entertaining affair.

“I’m furious with the sending off,” Robinson said.

“We’ve had some harsh decisions against us this year. Jamie went in clean in my view.

“In some ways the second contact from the Newport player was worse than the first. I think the referee was looking at it from the point of view of Jamie going for it rather than from the side which was a better angle.

“I didn’t think we were great but they are a very good side who don’t lose many games at home. I read in the programme before the game and the comment was we’ve started badly while they are in super confident form.

“It also said when Newport score early they very rarely lose a game. That’s how good they’ve been.

“It was a very solid performance. When the draw came out of the hat we knew it was going to be a very difficult afternoon.

“I didn’t think we were very fluent but all that matters is that we are through to the next round.”

The visitors opened the scoring inside two minutes when Demetriou sliced the ball into his own goal after a wicked cross by Baptiste.

Oxford rallied forward from the restart and doubled their lead after four minutes when Baptiste’s powerful shot from 30 yards found the back of the net.

Hanson was then given his marching orders due to a dangerous tackle on Semenyo, however Whyte rubbed salt into Newport’s wounds when he connected with Luke Garbutt’s cross in added time.

Newport manager Michael Flynn was disappointed with the result but was adamant his side were not as bad as the scoreline suggested.

“You can’t start any game by conceding two goals in the first five minutes,” Flynn said.

“It’s tough to come back from that in any match and Oxford are a good team from the league above. It was a terrible, terrible start from us.

“Between the two areas I thought we did quite well, (in the) second half we were the better team and we were just chasing it at the end (when we conceded the third).

“It sums it up they had a man sent off and we had to lose a player injured with no substitutes left so it was 10 against 10, it topped the night off.”