Owen Coyle: Neil Lennon wrong to claim victimisation by referees

OWEN Coyle last night claimed that Celtic manager Neil Lennon is out of line to claim that Scottish match officials have it in for him.

The Bolton manager understands the frustration in the dug-out caused by controversial decisions, but says he’s never known referees or their assistants to pursue vendettas.

Lennon Tweeted that “I think it’s personal” after referee Euan Norris awarded Hearts a late penalty and then denied Celtic one in the champions’ 2-1 Scottish Cup semi-final defeat at Hampden on Sunday. However, Coyle, at Hampden to lecture coaches as part of the SFA’s Continual Professional Development Seminar, believes that the Northern Irishman is mistaken.

“As coaches, because we want to win, sometimes we say or do things in the heat of the moment,” he said. “Alan Thompson is a good pal of mine and I still speak to him a lot. I get on well with Lenny and the rest of the boys there. Like anything else, if you feel a decision has gone against you then passion can take over. We can all do things in the heat of the moment. I’ve been there myself.

“You just have to try and temper it or whatever. The difficulty on Sunday was that it was a semi-final and anything a manager does is in the public eye and is a talking point.”

Coyle, though, says it’s wrong to question the integrity of officials. “I’ve mumped and moaned about referees like everyone else and I’ve taken the opportunity to speak to them to get explanations 20 or 30 minutes after the final whistle,” he said. “But I don’t envy them their jobs because refereeing is the toughest gig in football. Players are athletes and they’ve become quicker every year, therefore the game has become quicker as well.

“Unfortunately, the referee still has that same milli-second to make his decisions and that’s why, with play speeding up and the pitches also becoming better and faster – in England, anyway – that also makes it harder. You and I could watch six replays of an incident and not come to the same decision so refs have a very difficult task.

“People say decisions even themselves out over a season but I’m not a great believer in that. However, you just have to accept that sometimes these things will go your way and sometimes they won’t. But I don’t believe that any referee or official goes out in any game to do anything other than their absolute best. Yes, there’s human error but managers and players are guilty of that as well.”