Frustrated Alex Neil expects Stoke City will receive some form of fine after a post-match melee against Southampton.
Players squared up to each other following the final whistle of a controversially-refereed match at the bet365 Stadium which Southampton won 1-0. Stoke keeper Mark Travers was pushed in his back to the floor by Southampton’s Carlos Alcaraz, who was then posturing to Stoke’s Wouter Burger and surrounded by players and staff.
A steward pulled away Ben Pearson while Joe Aribo tried to go eyeball to eyeball with towering Stoke striker Wesley, who was led away by substitute keeper Jack Bonham while Alcaraz and Jan Bednarek embraced in a hug.
REACTION: Stoke 0 Southampton 1
READ MORE: Alex Neil left with just two fit defenders
Rookie official James Bell – who has faced criticism for his management of the game – appeared to show a yellow card to Burger while the incident is likely to be investigated by the FA.
Neil was asked if he could shed any light on what had happened and said: “Not really. There seemed to be a bit of a coming together but I’ve just said the same thing to the referee: the hostility and the anger comes through the crowd because you’ve riled them up by continuously given decisions, from their perspective as a club, against us and you feel hard done by.
“What happens is, that frustrates the players, you can hear them all shouting onto the pitch. The players get a bit frustrated and one little stupid thing, somebody says something they shouldn’t say and the next minute, everybody is…
“What I said to the referee is that we’ll probably get sanctioned for that. We’ll probably get a fine – and in my opinion it’s because the game wasn’t managed properly. If it had been managed properly I don’t think that happens.
“I can’t remember being involved in an incident since I’ve been here where that’s happened after a game.
“I’m not blaming our defeat on the referee but the simple fact is that there’s one team’s performance, the opposition’s performance and the officials’ performance and each one of them will have a massive bearing on the game.”
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