Whaley bites his tongue as Spalding United are controversially denied a late winner

Spalding United 1
Sutton Coldfield Town 1

Brett Whaley refused to get overly angry despite seeing his Spalding United side denied by a hugely controversial refereeing decision on Saturday.

The Tulips came from behind to rescue a Pitching In NPL Midlands Division point against Sutton Coldfield Town at the Sir Halley Stewart Playing Field, with Sam Cartwright’s 81st-minute strike cancelling out Leo Brown’s first-half opener.

But Spalding thought they’d won the game when Gregg Smith headed home in the last minute – only for the goal to be ruled out for alleged pushing in the box.

Replays suggest that the decision was a very bad one, but a philosophical Whaley – who was disappointed that his team failed to beat another side well below the Tulips in the table – felt that 1-1 was perhaps a fair result on the day.

“I don’t think we should spend too much time talking about the ‘goal’ at the end,” said the Spalding supremo. “It looked fine to me and I didn’t see a single player from Sutton Coldfield complain.

“But the referee said he’d expect there to have been a push in the box given how free Gregg was.

“Look, if we had been fighting for promotion then I’d probably have a lot more to say about it.

“But we’re not at the moment and, if we’re going to get a bad decision against us, I’m fine with it being now.

“You just hope that these things even themselves out, so perhaps we’ll get some luck when we really need it next time.

“To be honest, a win would have papered over the cracks in our performance.

“We’ve found a good way of playing against the better sides and are very adept at being robust defensively and building from a strong base.

“But we can’t seem to switch it up and control a game effectively against those teams that will just sit in against us and force us to attack.

“We can’t fix all of our problems at once, but I was hoping for a better performance.

“I don’t think we deserved to win the game, we struggled a little bit if I’m honest.

“Our football wasn’t good enough on a day when we had a bit more space to play.”

Spalding went into the game with 13 points from their last six games and handed a recall to top scorer Jordan Macleod.

But it was Sutton Coldfield, 17th in the 20-team division, who went ahead when Nathan Caine and Tom Armitage combined down the left before laying on the opener for Brown (24).

After the break Michael Duggan was forced to make a fine block to deny Armitage, as Spalding struggled to fashion any chances.

They did, however, level nine minutes from time when Cartwright crashed home a low strike following a cleared Liam Marshall corner.

Smith then headed home from another Marshall delivery for what looked like the winner at the death, but the officials had other ideas and cut wild home celebrations short.

Tulips: Duggan, Floyd, Bucci, Marshall, Stainfield, Cartwright, Seymour-Shove (Nassunculo), Koroma (Hart), Smith, Macleod (Edge), Starkie. Subs not used: Withers, Lynch.

Attendance: 184.