Alex McLeish defends referee Gavin Ward

Sep 16 2008 by Mark Woodward, Birmingham Mail

ALEX McLeish has praised referee Gavin Ward’s handling of Blues’ match against Doncaster Rovers, even though he dismissed Mehdi Nafti.

McLeish’s comments have come in reaction to the lambasting the Surrey official is understood to have taken from Doncaster chairman John Ryan, who sought him out in the tunnel area afterwards.

Doncaster had shouts for three penalties, but Ward’s judgment was correct on each occasion.

Lewis Guy actually said to Maik Taylor that he couldn’t be blamed for trying to dive to win a spot-kick after the goalkeeper went in to challenge him on the deck only to quickly move his hands out of the way.

David Murphy sidestepped James Hayter after reading his intentions to go to ground and Martin Taylor’s stumble into Jason Price was not cynical, said McLeish.

“You have to praise the referee for the way he handled the game,” said the boss. “Everybody spoke about him being a rookie – he’s only 28 – but he did superbly.

“If anyone is complaining that Birmingham got the decisions because they’re Birmingham, then they are wrong.

“There weren’t any penalties and I think the Doncaster chairman might want to consider that they were fortunate none of their players were sanctioned for their actions (diving).”