Terry Skiverton critical of officials after 10-man Wimbledon hold on for win

By Sports Desk December 22, 2023

AFC Wimbledon assistant boss Terry Skiverton was critical of the match officials after his side maintained their play-off push with a 2-1 victory at local rivals Crawley.

First-half goals from Josh Davison and Ali Al-Hamadi put the Dons in charge, and they were left needing to hold on after defender Will Wright pulled a late goal back for Crawley.

Dons had manager Johnnie Jackson red carded just before the interval after a header by Al-Hamadi was ruled out for obstruction.

Jackson’s side also went on to finish with 10 men with defender Joe Lewis picking up his second yellow card midway through the second period.

Skiverton felt all the big calls went against Dons and said: “I’m very proud of the lads as it was a really frustrating night when you look at incidents within the game.

“The gaffer gets very frustrated (after Al-Hamadi’s disallowed goal) and we couldn’t get our heads around the decision.

“The manager gets a yellow card and with his frustration they couldn’t wait to give him the second one.”

Skiverton claimed that Dons keeper Alex Bass had a missile thrown at him late in the game, saying: “Our keeper has stuff thrown at him and yet they add on an extra minute. It’s terrible.”

Crawley boss Scott Lindsey, meanwhile, vented his ire at his side for their first-half display after Town went down to their second successive home defeat.

Lindsey felt his men did not do themselves justice in the local derby before a crowd of nearly 5,000.

He said: “You can’t play half a game in a local derby.

“We got what we deserved – nothing. At half-time I asked for more determination to get more from the game.

“Running hard for 45 minutes isn’t ever going to be enough. Wimbledon ran all over us in the first half.

“It’s the worst we’ve played. You cannot play for 45 minutes against anyone at this level.

“You must be prepared to work in football; it doesn’t reflect me. I know what they are like. I feel we let ourselves down tonight.”

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