Fans weren’t happy at Brunton Park as ten-men Carlisle United lost their League Two clash with Leyton Orien 3-2.
Referee Thomas Parsons left the field – both at half-time and full-time – to a chorus of boos but sadly there were also reports of coins being thrown at the official.
United issued a statement after the game saying they were investigating after the referee had reported the coin throwing incident.
The club said: “The incident was reported to the safety officer after the match by the referee and will be included in his post-match report.
“We do not condone this behaviour and take a zero-tolerance approach
“We will investigate and take appropriate action against anyone involved. “
Then in his interview for the Leyton Orient website manager Richie Wellens spoke of coin throwing from home fans behind his dugout and the verbal abuse he suffered.
“The people behind the dugout, the home supporters, are a disgrace,” he said.
“I only picked -up one coin but I’m a quid richer. But they’re throwing coins, and total abuse for 90 minutes.
“Simmo and his team should be proud of the performance, and the majority of the crowd were really good.
“But you’ve got people constantly abusing you. And this isn’t football abuse. It’s vile abuse about your family members and your wife.
“Someone needs to step in. It’s a disgrace.”
As for the game itself Orient moved top of the League with the victory and extended their unbeaten run at Brunton Park to ten years.
Theo Archibald, rated by Blues boss Paul Simpson as one of the best in the League, put the visitors ahead after only two minutes and added a second with a superbly struck chip shot from 20-yards over keeper Tomas Holy,
In between whiles Ryan Edmondson scored his first goal for the club with a powerful header after 15 minutes to put the Blues level.
But the main talking point came on 35 minutes when Carlisle reckoned they should have had a clear penalty for a hand ball. It was turned aside by the referee and soon afterwards he produced a red card to send-off Edmondson for raising his hands to O’s captain Darren Pratley.
So United had to play from the 37th minute with ten men and the task was made harder when Aaron Drinan made it 3-1 four minutes into the second-half.
But United rallied really well and Jordan Gibson reduced the arrears with his first goal of the season on 57 minutes.
The home side continued to battle hard and had Orient penned back but couldn’t come up with an equalizer.
Afterwards Simpson said: “I want to say that I agree with the red card, there’s no arguments. But just before that the referee didn’t award a penalty which everyone but him thought should have been given.
“I wasn’t sure but I’ve since seen it back and in my view it was a penalty for a clear hand ball.
“We lost the game through conceding two poor goals and then a moment of madness put us down to ten men.
“However, the way we played in the second-half after going 3-1 down was excellent. I couldn’t have asked any more from the group and despite being disappointed to lose there are positives to take out of the game.”
