WEYMOUTH’S Adam Kelly has hit back at claims that he goes to ground too easily, insisting: “I can’t remember a time where I have deliberately gone down.”
The creative midfielder’s views come in the wake of Weymouth’s dramatic 2-2 draw with rivals Dorchester Town at the Bob Lucas Stadium on Saturday.
Having had an earlier shout for a spot-kick turned down by referee Marc Whaley after a tangle with Neil Martin in the Boxing Day derby, Kelly did earn a penalty shortly after Nathan Walker had opened the scoring for the Magpies, which Chris Shephard converted to level the game up.
Tweeting live updates from the derby clash, Dorchester Town’s club twitter account claimed Kelly “seems to be in competition with Tom Daley.”
An earlier post from the heated contest added that Kelly hit the floor twice with “no contact at all”.
Reacting to the posts, the former Poole and Truro City man told Echosport: “A couple of my mates tagged me in it! I didn’t really respond because I thought it was quite childish.
“I think it’s obvious that Dorchester aren’t capable of playing pretty football so, to try and deal with the way we play, they try to get a foot in, get in your face and, to a certain extent, it worked.
“I can’t remember a time where I have deliberately gone down, they fouled me each time. I don’t know why they were getting so frustrated on their Twitter account as well.
“I am bewildered sometimes that some players try and tackle the way they do in the box. My game is about trying to get at players and be creative in and around the box.
“If they want to try and win the ball off me in there then obviously I am going to look for fouls and free-kicks in and around the box because that’s part of my game.
“I was having a think about it and I definitely should have had two penalties. The first one was so obvious.
“I have got to the ball before him and he’s gone to kick the ball but he kicked me and that was a nailed on penalty.
“The second one (which was given), I took a big touch and if the goalkeeper doesn’t close me down I am going to slot it.
“He closed me down to make it more difficult for me to shoot. I had my shot but he came through me after.
“I still think it’s a penalty because if he didn’t do that I had a better chance of scoring.”
Speaking about the contest as a whole, Kelly added: “I was really frustrated after.
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“I thought our game management in the second half was fairly poor and sometimes we have to understand we are not going to win every game by playing pretty football.
“We need to know when to clear our lines and keep the ball up the opposition’s end.”
