Aston Villa: Martin O'Neill fumes as ref waves on 'handling' incident

Apr 20 2009 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

MARTIN O’Neill angrily accused referee Rob Styles of denying Villa a cast-iron penalty in the dying stages against West Ham United.

O’Neill was fuming at Styles’ decision to wave away Villa’s protests when James Tomkins appeared to handle under pressure from John Carew.

The controversial incident happened deep into stoppage time at the end of the game.

“We were denied a clear-cut penalty in the last minute of the game,” said O’Neill, who faces an FA disciplinary charge for criticising Mike Riley at Old Trafford a fortnight ago.

“You have got to be able to see those, the player has clearly punched the ball away. It is not as if it brushed against him, but that is the way things are going for us at present.”

Read Mat Kendrick's big match verdict

O’Neill was also annoyed with Styles and West Ham for the kit clash which led to Villa wearing their all-white change strip.

The referee felt the pale blue Hammers away kit clashed with the sleeves of Villa’s home shirt.

West Ham, who were responsible for the mix-up, offered to cut off the sleeves but O’Neill reluctantly stepped in by agreeing that Villa would wear white.

“I don’t really have much to comment on it other than I’m not overly delighted about playing at Villa Park without our kit,” he said.

“But I think people know what happened so I’m not going to elaborate.”

Villa’s makeshift first-half shirts did not feature the Acorns emblem, but by the time the team returned after the break the sponsors’ name had been restored.