Ritchie – Goes for the easy option

Huddersfield Town manager Andy Ritchie, has gone for the easy option of blaming the ref for yesterdays defeat to Cheltenham, but surely this is missing the point

Andy Ritchie has been quoted extensively bemoaning the poor refereeing decisions that he believes have cost Huddersfield one or maybe even three points, in the home defeat to Cheltenham.

On referee Rob Shoebridge decision to disallow a stoppage-time equaliser by Luke Beckett.

Ritchie said: ‘There is no doubt it was a goal. There was no foul. But every time the ball went into the box the referee was blowing his whistle. This is a man’s game.

and Ritchie commented in general,

‘I am not happy with the referee’s performance at all. But if I say how I really feel then there will be asterisks in all the newspapers.

Whilst I admire our leaders belief that the referee did us no favours, and that the side deserved something from this game.

I do think blaming the referee for some poor decisions is masking over the fact, that this was a poor display by the terriers, good or bad refereeing cannot hide the fact that some of the Town side showed little appetite for the game, and even less passion.

I would have a bit more sympathy for Andy Ritchie if he came out and said the ref was poor but so were we.

If we are going down the blaming route, why when the game was clearly in need of fresh impetus at 1-1, was no substitution made, when Schofield came on it was too little to late ?

Why does he persist in playing a goalkeeper clearly out of form lacking in confidance and who has cost us three goals, one in each of the last three matches. What exactly does Matt Glennon have to do to be dropped, and the England U19 keeper (repeat England U19 keeper) Simon Eastwood have to do to get a first team game.

Whilst I don’t think we are quite at panic stations yet, I do think Andy Ritchie needs to look at his own performance as much as that of the referee.