EFL boss rages at penalty decision that helped Wrexham inch towards promotion

03/22/2025 03:01 PM

Stockport County boss Dave Challinor failed to contain his frustration at the officials following a controversial decision against Wrexham.

Wrexham picked up a valuable 1-0 win over their promotion-chasing rivals at The Racecourse thanks to Jay Rodriguez‘s 29th-minute strike.

The ex-Burnley marksman fired in the rebound after his penalty was saved by Stockport‘s Corey Addai, which was his first goal for the Welsh outfit since joining in January.

But it was the circumstances that led to the penalty being awarded which left Challinor apoplectic.

Stockport’s Ibou Touray challenged for the ball with Wrexham’s James McClean inside the Stockport 18-yard box.

McClean got his head to the ball, but it bounced off Touray, who was mere inches away, and went out for a corner.

However, referee Simon Mather and one of the linesman consulted and decided Touray had committed a handball.

Replays showed the ball struck Touray’s arm, but that’s because he appeared to be thrown off-balance by McClean.

Speaking after the contest, Challinor bemoaned a ‘really, really poor decision’ that he believed cost his team at least a point.

“First off, I’m not going to get myself into trouble over it by saying what I probably truly believe,” Challinor said.

“But if you’re going to get involved in situations, I’ve just spoke to the referee and the officials, although they didn’t say much back.

“If you’re going to get involved in situations, my argument would be, ‘What have you seen?’, because you’ve got a flag.

“If you believe there’s a foul, everywhere else I’ve seen, you wave your flag, now I’ve been told that they’re not allowed to do that anymore, you’ve got to talk to each other on comms.

“Regardless of that, it’s never been a penalty. It’s never been a penalty.

“There can be arguments, potentially for the decision before when Sam Smith goes down under the pressure of Ethan Pye.

“There can be arguments there, now I’ve not seen that back closely, but that’s more of a penalty then that, that he’s given.

“And for a linesman to get involved on the far side of the pitch and do nothing else in the game and cost us – not cost us three points – because we wasn’t good enough to score and didn’t create much opportunities.

“But to cost us a point and flip the momentum in the first half is down to another really, really poor decision in my eyes, where we’re talking about not two teams playing football.

“We’re talking about a third team and it will continue to go on and maybe we need to accept it.”

He added: “Unfortunately, promotion and relegation in this division, people’s jobs will be decided by people in black outfits.”

When asked whether the handball was the turning point of the clash, Challinor said: “It completely changed the momentum of the game, we’re totally on top.

“And our performance in the first half, even though it didn’t create lots of opportunities, was really controlled and really in the ascendancy.

“They didn’t lay a glove on us, yet an official has got involved – if he sees and believes that it’s handball, then fine.

“But you need to see what happens in the lead-up to that, and if he goes, ‘If it hits Ibou Touray on the arm,’ it’s not hit him on the arm where he thinks it has.

“But there’s a blatant foul, would you not ask yourself the question as to why he would be in the position that he’s in?

“It should be our free-kick, not a corner, not anything else, he’s given a penalty and unfortunately that’s what we’re up against.”

The loss to Wrexham leaves Stockport in fifth on 65 points, four clear of sixth-placed Huddersfield Town who also boast a game in hand.

A draw would have seen them leapfrog ahead of Charlton in fourth spot following the Addicks’ defeat away at Peterborough.

As for Wrexham, they sit second on 74 points.

However, the Welsh side could be leapfrogged by third-placed Wycombe Wanderers with the Chairboys boasting a game in hand.