28 October 2023 , 15:49
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Wayne Rooney took aim at the referee as his losing start to life as Birmingham City boss continued on Saturday.
Their trip to Southampton saw them lose 3-1, following defeats to Middlesbrough and Hull City. The St Andrew's hierarchy opted to bring in Rooney after his stint in the MLS came to an end, replacing John Eustace despite a positive start to the season, which saw Rooney arrive with Blues in the playoff places.
Rooney though is now zero from three after the reverse at St Mary's, where he was less than impressed with the officials. Taylor Harwood-Bellis opened the scoring within ten minutes, but replays showed he was offside. Birmingham were then denied what appeared to be a clear penalty as Oliver Burke was bundled over by opposition goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu - former Premier League referee Mike Dean labelled the decision "embarrassing".
The new Birmingham boss was by no means advocating for VAR in the second tier, but struggled to comprehend the penalty decision, especially when he learned that the referee wasn't concerned about seeking a second opinion from his assistants.
He said: “These decisions happen when you don’t have VAR. I’m not a fan of VAR and you accept referees and linesmen might make mistakes but what you can’t accept is the penalty decision. It is ridiculous and everyone in the stadium could see it.
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“The keeper is committed and is coming at pace and is reckless. If he is coming like that then he has to win the ball but he absolutely wipes out Burkey. The most frustrating thing is that the fourth official told me that the referee was clear in his decision and wasn’t willing to take advice from his fourth official and assistant.
Southampton were fortunate with several refereeing calls“He was clear there was minimal contact. That is a worry for me. I hope VAR doesn’t filter down but we would have got a penalty if VAR was here. I know referees will make mistakes, I can accept that but for me that was too much and a big error.”
Opposition manager Russell Martin conceded he expected a penalty to be awarded: “I feel for Wayne and if he’s frustrated with that I would be as well It was a moment of madness from Gav. He hadn’t had a lot to do at that point.”
Rooney had to deal with boos during the week and Birmingham have now slumped into the bottom half of the table. The club's next chance of getting a win under their new manager comes against high-flying Ipswich Town next weekend.