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"We were cheated," fumed Stan after the game. "I think we should have won the game 1-0, their goal was offside and we had a blatant penalty when Robbie Blake was fouled. There were six bookings and there was not a bad tackle in the whole of the game. We have been the victims of an awful refereeing display.
"He did the exact same thing against us at Crystal Palace and I say what I do with all due respect and if they want to fine me they can, but I won't be paying it. I will give them a video of the game and then they will be fining him. Something has to be done because a season's work is at stake. That was one of the worst refereeing displays I have ever seen and we have had two points taken away from us.
"I am not saying that we did not ride our luck, I am just saying that I felt that Millwall had a little help tonight. I know that refs go out there and try to do their best but if that was his best he should be reffing down at Hackney Marshes.
"We have come down to play a football match at Millwall, a very important match, and an important match for Mark McGhee after a run of defeats but we end up talking about the ref. We can't be wrong all the time. If you get beat you say they are better than us on the day, if we win we say we were better than them, we got a break or this and that. But not tonight, it was not a fair contest."
But it is not just Stan who has turned on the egotistical Cooper, his car even carries a REF registration plate. Gilingham boss Andy Hessenthaler turned on him last season after an incredible performance at Brighton saw Cooperman send off a player for celebrating a goal.
There was a point last season when the card happy referee waved an incredible ten red cards in just twelve games and week after week he was being attacked by managers.
He gave bad results that cost us in two games last season, the penalty at Crystal Palace against Marlon Beresford that won the home side a point took some believing, and then he followed that bad day up with the Millwall performance.
Already this season he has come under attack and both Phil Parkinson (Colchester) and Danny Wilson (Bristol City) complained in no uncertain terms after a nine yellow card performance in a match that both managers agreed had not contained a single bad foul.
That has been his busiest game this season and in five games to date he has handed out a total of 25 yellow cards and a couple of red cards to go with them. Already he is following his usual pattern of punishing away players considerably more than home players with, 9 homes and 17 aways so far, and both red cards, Michael Stewart (Forest) and Andy Edwards (Rushden & Diamonds), have been away players.
So what can we expect tomorrow? Clearly a referee who wants to be the star of the show and a referee who, unless he has been on a strict summer diet, is vastly overweight and physically incapable of keeping up with play.
We are almost certain to have cards, over his career so far he is averaging over four per game and has only kept them in his pocket for an entire game once in the last three seasons.
We’ll certainly need to be on our guard because he will, given his past record, be considerably keener to wave cards at our players than those playing for the home side.
There again he could handle the game superbly and we could all come away saying what a good game he had, somehow it will take a very out of character performance from Walsall based Cooperman for us to say that.
Previous Burnley games:
Season | Opps | V | Res | Y | R | Burnley players carded |
a | ||||||
2002/03 | Millwall | a | 1-1 | 6 | 0 | Cox Grant Little Taylor Weller West |
2002/03 | Crystal Palace | a | 1-1 | 5 | 0 | Beresford Branch Ian Moore Taylor |