Manager Gareth Ainsworth insisted he was only trying to help the officials after picking up a yellow card on Friday.
The Gillingham manager was trying to get the referee’s attention after goalkeeper Glenn Morris went down injured during their League Two match at Walsall.
Report: Walsall 2 Gillingham 2
According to the Gills boss, the referee’s communication device wasn’t working, and so the official had no contact with his assistants. Ainsworth decided to take matters into his own hands.
He said: “My goalkeeper goes down injured and when the ball goes out of play, I have stepped on the pitch to shout the ref, because he couldn’t hear anyone. I got booked for that.
“I’m like, ‘this is not my fault – I’m doing you (the assistant referee) a favour by shouting the ref over’. ‘No, you put a couple of feet on the pitch, and that’s a yellow’.”
Match referee William Davis hasn’t had much experience in the Football League. Friday’s game was only his fifth over the past two seasons since making the step up.
Mr Davis was being quizzed by the Gillingham management team at the end of the first half of Friday’s game when he waved away penalty appeals.
Nelson Khumbeni was pulled down inside the box following a corner, but nothing was given.
“I can’t believe that wasn’t a penalty,” Ainsworth fumed.
“The referees are learning the game, which, again, doesn’t help sometimes.
“We’ve had a lot of inexperience in the officials that have officiated us.
“I understand that they need to get experience to get there, but it seems to have happened a lot to us.
“I thought that the ref, in my opinion, missed a couple of things, and the comms weren’t working as well.
“It’s a tough job. I wouldn’t want to do it. But, yes, it was a couple of things where I thought we might have got the rub of the green, but we’ll get it somewhere else, I’m sure.”
