Barker barking mad at ‘unfair refereeing’ in Chiefs loss

Stellenbosch FC coach Steve Barker was left disappointed, proud and angry after his side fell to another loss at Kaizer Chiefs. 

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Amakhosi won the DStv Premiership match at FNB Stadium on Saturday evening 2-1 to keep their Caf Champions League hopes alive. 

But Barker was not satisfied with a lot of things including the refereeing on the night which he felt was dubious.

“I will keep it brief,” said Barker after the match. “It has some different emotions with me right now… 

“There is one of disappointment, one of pride and one of anger. Let me start with the disappointment. 

Chiefs players apologised for bad refereeing

“It was a disappointing start to the game for us. I thought we were not at the races in the first half. 

“We didn’t play with enough aggression, nor intensity. It is either we showed them too much respect or what it actually was. But we didn’t start well,” added Barker.

“That is the disappointing part. Now for the pride part, the response in the second half was good. 

“The way we played, the way we came out with a different attitude and corrected some of the things from the first half. 

“We came out with more willingness to take the game to Chiefs and then before I get to the anger part, I must congratulate Chiefs. 

“They seem to be a team who put teams under a lot of pressure…. you get 11 or 12 penalties in a season. 

“In the last six matches, three red cards for their opponent in the first half, well done to them,” said Barker. 

The referee was disappointing

While he didn’t say anything controversial towards the referees, Barker was obviously unimpressed by the work of Tsidiso Mkhwanazi and his team. 

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“I am disappointed in the referee today. If you remember the game, they had maybe double figure free kicks around the box. 

“I am not denying that some of those were legitimate calls. But I wonder why we could not get any free kicks in that final third when Iqraam Rayners was being held on many occasions.”

Barker suggested that at the end of the game Chiefs players came to him to concede that the referee was biassed.

“When the opposition comes and apologises about the refereeing, credit to the players for that. It was hard for them to say what they said. 

“That is the anger and disappointment of this evening. But there is nothing I can do about it. It is done, it is over. 

“We move on. We had four penalties awarded against us against Chiefs in the last two games. 

“I don’t know if it is the gold and black jersey or the crowd that intimidates the referees,” added Barker.