Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher fumes over controversial decision
“We watched it back at half-time, there’s clear contact on Mustapha, Mustapha said he clipped his ankle.”
Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher was left fuming over a controversial decision not to award a foul on striker Mustapha Bundu. The Pilgrims ultimately were beaten 3-2 away to Ipswich Town, but the incident in the first half, when Argyle were ahead, changed the course of the game.
Bundu was clean through on goal when George Edmundson seemingly brought him down in the 42nd minute. Referee Gavin Ward waved away the appeals for the foul, which replays subsequently show should have been given.
Not only did the Tractor Boys go straight up the other end, win a corner, which they scored from to equalise, but Edmundson should have seen at least a yellow card for the challenge, which given the defender was booked in the second half, could have seen Argyle playing against ten men in the latter stages. As it was, Schumacher’s men ended with ten after Bundu late on went off injured after the Greens had made all their allowed substitutes.
ther end, got a corner and scored from it, so that was a huge turning point that went against us and was a refereeing decision that I still can’t get my head around. We watched it back at half-time, there’s clear contact on Mustapha, Mustapha said he clipped his ankle.”
“I think they were the only two people in the ground that couldn’t see it, James [Linington] the fourth official was next to me and said it looked like a foul, it felt like a foul. In everybody else’s eyes it was a foul.
“I’m not wanting to see people get sent off, it arguably could have been a red card because Edmundson was the last man, but there are two covering defenders, it could have been a free-kick or a penalty, I don’t know, I’m not arguing that.
“But what it definitely was a foul because what happened as well was that Ipswich scored immediately after it. George Edmundson gets booked in the second half and should have been sent off, so we ended up playing with 10 men because we have an injury and they ended up with 11 on the pitch – which was probably a bit fortunate.”
Morgan Whittaker’s superb early curling effort put the Pilgrims ahead, but on the stroke of half-time, Ipswich got a fortuitous equaliser as Massimo Luongo’s backheel from a corner was diverted past Argyle keeper Michael Cooper by team-mate Bali Mumba.
Town went ahead when George Hirst calmly finished after an error by Dan Scarr before Marcus Harness made it 3-1. Argyle skipper Joe Edwards converted a Mumba cutback in stoppage-time to set up a nervy finish, but Ipswich held on.
The win extended Ipswich’s unbeaten run to 11 games in all competitions while Argyle slip to 19th place. Argyle’s next action sees them host Middlesbrough at Home Park on Saturday.
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