ADAM Kelly is in no doubt that Matt Oldring should have been sent off in the first half of Monday’s derby between Dorchester Town and Weymouth.
Salisbury referee Iain Parsons showed Magpies defender Oldring a yellow card for a challenge from behind on the Terras midfielder around 20 minutes into the Avenue clash.
But Kelly feels the match official didn’t go far enough in the punishment he dished out to the centre-back.
Meanwhile, Oldring has responded to Kelly’s claims by saying that there was “no maliciousness” in the tackle.
However, the Dorchester player concedes that the incident looked a lot worse to him when he saw a replay of it after the match.
“When he did it I thought he was going to get sent off straight away,” Kelly told Echosport.
“I spoke to the referee a couple of times during the game and I still can’t believe he didn’t send him off.
“He has gone straight over the top of the ball and if my leg had been planted he would have gone through it.
“He didn’t catch me on my bone as such, he went through my muscle and my calf.
“It was a terrible tackle, and if they had got a player sent off that early in the game it could have been completely different.
“I think there were some awful tackles from their players throughout the game, but that’s something you’ve got to deal with.
“Some teams are not going to compete with us technically so maybe we’ve got to be a little bit cuter.”
In response, Oldring stated: “There was no maliciousness about it, I went in to win the ball and mistimed it.
“At the time I made the tackle it didn’t feel that bad because there was no intention from me to hurt him.
“I didn’t think much of it but I’ve watched it back and it looks a lot worse.
“I don’t want it to take anything away from the result because the boys were fantastic and worked hard.
“In derby games challenges get brought up more because it’s a different atmosphere to a normal game.”
Kelly was part of a Weymouth team that failed to fire in the county town, and the defeat was his first against the Magpies as a Terras player.
He added: “Their style of getting in our faces worked.
“They made it difficult for us and I don’t think we ever really got going.
“Away from home we need to concentrate on winning the battle first and then playing our own style of football.
“We need to bounce back as quickly as possible and a home game this weekend is ideal.”
Meanwhile, the Terras have arranged a friendly against Torquay United for next Wednesday at 7.30pm.
The winners of the Claret and Blue Lottery for August are: 1 Kevin Burns (Birmingham), 2 Kevin Banks (Weymouth), 3 Linda Nash (Weymouth).
