Paul Heckingbottom lashes out at ‘terrible’ referees after Sheffield United’s Premier League defeat at Tottenham | Football news

Paul Heckingbottom has criticized the “appalling” standard of Premier League referees following Sheffield United’s defeat at Tottenham, saying officials “don’t know the game” in a stunning speech.

The beaten Blades manager was quick to comment on the state of officials in the top flight and insisted it had nothing to do with his side’s 100th-minute defeat at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday .

Much of his anger was directed at how the PGMOL’s public campaign to combat time-wasting this season, and how he felt referees were going too far in their demands for play to resume.

“The functioning of the officials is appalling,” he said Aerial sports. “It’s not about football decisions, it’s just about match management. What worries me is that all the focus is on yellow cards, wasting time and the new guidelines .

“All of a sudden the emphasis is on wasting time, so they dictate how we play. If you play to take goal kicks from the back, you set up in one direction, and If the Spurs go against that, that dictates the decision you make.

“We’re being told to play long – you can’t do that. Wes (Foderingham) got a warning for handling outside the box and then you threaten him with another yellow (for dissent), you just can’t not do it.

“When I talk to the referees, they have no idea what I’m talking about. They referee our matches at the highest level and they just don’t know the game. We have to sort this out and sort it out. “It’s quick. It ruined the show. “

Heckingbottom was only slightly happier that Micky van de Ven did not receive harsher punishment for what appeared to be a first-half elbow on Foderingham, which left the goalkeeper requiring treatment and the Spurs defender on a yellow card.

A red card was shown later in the match to Sheffield United striker Ollie McBurnie, who was sent off in the final seconds for dissent against referee Peter Bankes.

Heckingbottom said: “You see all the frustration. Both teams, both sides, both teams take the Mickey off the referee and to sum it all up, Ollie McBurnie gets sent off for telling the referee that someone pulled his jersey.

“We just saw someone turn his back, jump on our goalie, lead with an elbow, he needs stitches – and it’s considered the same offense. What’s going on in our match?

“That regardless of our performance, our game. I would have said the same thing at 0-0 or when we were leading 1-0.

“What worries me is where we’re taking our game, and I say that when I talk to Howard (Webb). People who don’t know anything about football are directing the direction the game is going, and It’s sad. It was sad. today.”