Cleverley staying quiet on referee's display

'I HAVE TO SIT ON MY HANDS NOW' INSISTS PILGRIMS HEAD COACH

- By CHRIS ERRINGTON

Plymouth Argyle captain Joe Edwards argues with referee Ben Atkinson during the 1-0 win at Peterborough United

(STEVE FLYNN/PPAUK)

THERE were so many yellow cards issued by referee Ben Atkinson during Plymouth Argyle’s 1-0 League One win away to Peterborough United it was hard to keep count of them all.

It started with Peterborough defender Tom O'Connor being booked in the fourth minute for preventing the Pilgrims from taking a throw-in quickly, all the way through to Argyle’s Alex Mitchell being cautioned for a foul on Matt Garbett in the fifth minute of added time at the end of a very stop-start match.

The inconsistent refereeing of Atkinson was certainly a contributory factor to that. Peterborough ended up with eight yellow cards and right-back Peter Kioso being sent-off in the 89th minute for a second bookable offence, while Argyle had four cautions.

"At least I wasn’t one of them,” joked Argyle head coach Tom Cleverley, who is set to start a third touchline ban of the season when the Pilgrims take on Luton Town at Home Park next Saturday after he was red-carded during the 4-3 Vertu Trophy victory over Bristol Rovers last Tuesday.

Cleverley would not have been in such good humour had Argyle been beaten by Peterborough given the fact that the home side should have had O'Connor sent-off soon after his yellow card.

A foul by the Peterborough defender on Lorent Tolaj was clearly a second bookable offence but Atkinson decided otherwise and when Argyle midfielder Malachi Boateng indicated he thought that was should have happened he was issued a yellow card.

You can only imagine that Atkinson, well aware he had already booked O’Connor moments earlier, did not want to send him off so soon into the contest. There was no other logical explanation.

Cleverley said: “I thought there was a clear red card in the first 10 minutes, but apart from that I thought he did alright.