Frickley Athletic 0-3 Carlton Town

Frickley Athletic 0-3 Carlton Town
Northern Premier League (Division One South/East)
Saturday 3rd October 2020

Though Frickley were comfortably beaten 3-0 by their Nottinghamshire counterparts, the scoreline only tells part of the story about what happened in this game.

Without doubt, the significant turning point which hugely effected the outcome occurred not long before the half-hour mark when the score was goalless as Frickley's 'keeper Tom Nicholson was controversially given a straight red card for 'deliberate' handball. 

I've used inverted commas as the 'deliberate' intention must be taken with a large pinch of salt.

To explain what happened, a long downfield ball was drifting towards Nicholson's penalty area and the 'keeper, somewhat over-enthusiastically, clawed it into his grasp from just inside the 'D'. It was a handball outside the box (that bit can't be argued at all) and although a visiting player was chasing the ball down, he wasn't going to get to it first - irrespective of Nicholson's actions! 

If the 'keeper had waited half a second or possibly less, then he'd have caught the ball inside his area, released it, and no controversy whatsoever would have followed. Instead, the referee felt he had no option other than to award a free-kick and brandish a straight red card.

Harsh!

To the pedantic letter of the law, some people would argue that this was the correct decision. Certainly, Nicholson gave the referee an excuse to use his red card - and when most officials get presented with such an opportunity, they're only too eager to spoil someone's weekend.

But should 'common sense' have prevailed?

As said, the fact the 'keeper claimed the ball half a second too early wasn't going to change anything as the ball was running into his path and the nearest opponent was 100% not going to get to it first. The 'keeper was certainly not 'deliberately denying a goalscoring opportunity' or anything remotely like that and, in my opinion, a yellow card would have easily sufficed.

The incident bore all the hallmarks of the time when Ross Flitney was shown a red card whilst playing for Barnet against Manchester United in the Carling Cup in October 2005. On the flip side, I've seen a 'keeper once stay on the pitch despite committing the same offence, if not more clear cut - that was Will Puddy in the Conference Premier Play-Off Final in May 2015.

It's an argument which could rumble on forever and day, but it was a game-changer and the fact is now that nothing is going to change the end result.

Nicholson's dismissal also put a premature end to Fin Shrimpton's afternoon as he was substituted for replacement veteran 'keeper Gavin Saxby, who did an admirable job in keeping the score down during his hour or so on the pitch.

It was disappointing for Shrimpton, whose on loan at Westfield Lane from Scunthorpe (where he earned a pro deal last summer) and wasn't doing badly up to this point in the game despite an earlier knock, and it links back to the question of whether it was entirely necessary for the referee to stick religiously to the letter of the law?

Up to the red card incident, there had been chances at both ends with Charlie Barks - another youngster on loan at Frickley from Scunthorpe and operating in an unusual right-back berth, setting up Nathan Hotte for a shot which went over, whilst Barks blocked a powerful effort at the other end.

Though Frickley survived the immediate free-kick after the sending off, the momentum shift in Carlton's favour was almost tangible and the visitors soon took the lead when a free-kick was bundled into his own net by the unfortunate Kegan Everington.

The visitors then had a goal disallowed for offside whilst Saxby did well to narrow angles and prevent more damage either side of the half-time interval, before Frickley gave it a fairly decent go in their efforts to try and force an unlikely equaliser with Nyle Blake going close.

However, Carlton then scored twice in the final five minutes through Aaron Opoku (who had a decent game on the whole apart from some wayward finishing at times) and Niall Davie in injury-time. They proved they're a decent outfit as they exploited the man advantage so fair play and 'good luck' to them for the rest of this season.

But the main talking point will be THAT red card decision...

For any Scunthorpe fans who might stumble across this, the two young are certainly going to learn plenty of things during this experience where they're competing in a different environment to what they've been used to previously. Although he got dispossessed in one instance which resulted in a shot, Fin Shrimpton looked neat and tidy in possession, wanted the ball, linked up play on a few occasions and wasn't doing badly on the whole before he went off - something which was influenced by the fact he'd taken a knock. Although I can only make a snap judgement based on seeing him play for half-an-hour today (which isn't anywhere near enough time) he didn't look phased by the challenge of playing in 'Mens football' whatsoever - and testament to that is probably the fact he's retained his place in the starting line-up for three straight games and won two 'Man of the Match' polls on Twitter. 

Charlie Barks, operating at right-back as opposed to his usual centre-half spot, drifted out of position on a couple of instances when the defence was being put under pressure having only partially cleared the danger, but I'm sure he'll learn, grow and improve with games/experience - which is the purpose of the loan move. What was noticeable, more than in the games at Scunthorpe where I've seen him previously, was that he got forward and provided an attacking threat on the right flank and almost set-up a goal.