Greene furious at dismissal (18.02.05)

MAGPIES supremo Dennis Greene was unable to suppress his anger at a sending-off in Tuesday’s defeat against Margate, which he believes scuppered his team’s chances of coming home with at least a point.
After an impressive 4-0 thrashing of Carshalton Athletic on Saturday at York Road which Greene described as ‘psychologically important’, the Magpies travelled in good heart to face fellow relegation-battlers Margate.
A win would have seen them rise a massive five places, but ultimately a 2-0 reverse maintained their precarious position just outside the drop-zone.
Greene was in no doubt as to the culprit for his side’s demise, saying: “The ref was poor all game. He started by blowing his whistle every time players touched each other and went on from there.
“They could barely make a tackle without him stopping the game.
“Then to compound this, he sent off Duggy (Andy Dugdale) at the start of the second half, when in fact he should have dismissed the Margate player for diving.”
He added: “In the first half Margate scored twice from knockdowns with the wind and rain behind them. But after the break, when it was our turn to use the conditions, we were quickly down to 10 men.
“It made all the difference. In fact we played well, but couldn’t find a way through, and they always had the extra man to apply pressure.”
The result left the Magpies fourth from bottom in Conference South, but Greene was optimistic about his team’s future.
He said: “The reality is that we are playing well. We meet Havant on Saturday (tomorrow) and by beating them we will anchor them to the foot of the table.
“We have some interesting games ahead, but we’re playing good football and I know we’ll be safe come the end of the season.
“It’s very tight at present (five points separating the bottom eight teams) but I think that in a month’s time you’ll see it will be down to five teams scrapping it out to stay up.
“I don’t think we’ll be one of them. If I had to choose three to go down, I think it’ll be Havant, Redbridge and Newport.
“But it’s very tight."