Gillingham had a goal disallowed and a penalty appeal turned down on Saturday but the manager wasn’t willing to criticise the referee.
Match official Jamie O’Connor hasn’t had much Football League experience, but he was at the centre of things at Priestfield as Gillingham did everything but score a goal against Crewe. The match ended goalless.
Report: Gillingham 0 Crewe 0
Bradley Dack thought he had scored a late winner but O’Connor signalled for a foul on goalkeeper Filip Marschall – who made several top saves before that – then an appeal for handball in the box in the last seconds was waved away.
Coleman, who spoke about the lack of penalties going his team’s way before the game, said: “I like Lee (Bell, the Crewe manager) and I get on quite well with him.
“He came out with an unbelievable rant about the referees on Tuesday. I’ve deliberately kept quiet from referees, and that might be to my detriment, but I’m not going to get drawn on it.
“We’ll concentrate on what we can concentrate on, what we can influence. We can’t influence referees.
“As I said on Thursday in my pre-match, it’s such a hard job. It’s only as you get older and you realise they’re under immense pressure.
“Even if they make mistakes, they’re only human. You just have to accept that. That’s part of the luck, that’s part of the fortune.
“Unfortunately, we’ve gone through a little bit of bad luck with decisions, but we can only focus on what we can do playing football. That’s why I’m not going to get drawn on it.”
Gillingham were the dominant side in the second half at Priestfield but had to settle for a point.
“I’m not going to come here and be happy with a nil-nil draw,” said the Gills boss, now seven games without a win.
“I’m happy with the performance and the effort that we put in, but I’m not happy at drawing nil-nil, I can’t be.
“I’ve never ever celebrated a draw, that’s for sure. I’m not an Evertonian.
“I must give a lot of praise to Lee Bell and the Crewe side that he brought here.
“Being decimated with injuries, he had a couple of suspensions as well, had to have a lot of youngsters in the squad and I thought they put up a terrific fight.
“When they went down to 10 men with about 15 to go, and they had to play another eight (at the end), threw their bodies in the way of everything, rode their luck, got very lucky with the goal that got disallowed.
“It’s one of them days, and what I said to the players is that if you go into your shell and you shout about how we’re cursed then you’ll never get anywhere, you’ve just got to keep banging the door down till it goes in.
“What they’ll be surprised about is that when one goes in, you’ll probably see two or three go in. That’s football, I’ve been through this mill loads of times.
“Sometimes it goes for you, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes it feels as though everything is going against you.
“You’ve got to ride it through, you’ve got to go through the pain, but you’ve got to show the endeavour that we showed.”
Coleman was asked about the chance at the end, on 98 minutes when there were big appeals for a penalty.
The Gills boss said: “The lad’s just tried to block it with his arm. His arm’s across his chest. You get them or you don’t get them.
“It’s just frustrating that we’ve actually scored a goal that should have been given but that’s by the by. I’m not going to get drawn into referees.
“At that point you’re shouting for everything. I wasn’t, I was quite calm on the sidelines. I’ve been involved in football long enough to know that things like this happen and I’ve been in that situation dozens of times.
“I’ve also been the other side of it, hanging on with 10 men, getting absolutely pummeled, so I know what that feels like as well.
“They’ll enjoy the journey home. You’ve got two teams coming off with exactly the same result, but one will go home happy and one will go home disappointed.
“I don’t think our fans will go home too disappointed. They might feel aggrieved. I’m disappointed but in equal measures I’m proud of the way we kept on going.”
