Newark Town manager Luke Parsons says players need to beat AFC Mansfield this Saturday to keep United Counties League Premier Division North play-off hopes alive
Manager Luke Parsons feels Newark Town are in the last-chance saloon after a controversial defeat hit their play-off hopes.
A disputed penalty, awarded against Luke Andersen for handball, saw Town beaten 1-0 at Deeping Rangers in United Counties League Premier Division North on Saturday.
The result leaves them three points outside the play-offs in seventh place, with only three games to go.
They host sixth-placed AFC Mansfield, who are a point ahead of Parsons’ side, in a big match at the YMCA this Saturday (3pm).
Heanor, who recovered from 2-0 down to beat Newark 4-2 a fortnight ago, are the team to catch in fifth.
A draw is no good to either Newark or AFC Mansfield, so a cracking game is in prospect.
“All we can do is try and win our games,” said Parsons.
“It’s going to be a massive ask because Heanor have got a better goal difference as well.
“We’re pretty much reliant on them to drop points in two games.
“AFC are one place and one point ahead of us so I’d pretty much say both teams have got to win that game.
“Whichever team loses will be out of it, I would have thought, and no team’s going to settle for a draw.
“We’re certainly not and I don’t think they will because if it’s a draw, and Heanor win, then we’re five points behind with two games to go.
“Over the last few weeks, we’ve tried to be a bit more cautious but we’re at our best when we’re all-out attack, so it suits us down to the ground.
“We’ve been an all-out attack team and I think that’s evident with the clean sheets we’ve had - we’ve kept five in 48 games and we’ve had to pretty much outscore the opposition in most games.
“The pressure’s off us because we’re not expected to get in the play-offs now.
“Obviously we were in a good position and we’ve flopped that.
“We can just go for it and if it’s not good enough, it’s not good enough.”
Newark have been left with an uphill task after the narrow defeat at struggling Deeping.
The hosts were awarded a penalty in the last 20 minutes when a Rangers player checked and flicked the ball on to Andersen’s arm as the Newark centre-half slid in to deal with a cross.
Town had been the better of the two sides, without looking like scoring, but lost their way after falling behind.
They also had goalkeeper Josh Wilson sinbinned for dissent after several attempts to ask the referee whether a free-kick would be taken on the whistle fell on deaf ears.
That meant an outfield player going in goal for 10 minutes.
There was also controversy at the other end when an elbow on Andersen, which left him with blood pouring from his ear, went unpunished.
“We didn’t recover from the penalty decision which went against us,” said Parsons.
“Too many of the players lost their heads.
“It was a mad couple of minutes because the ref gave the penalty, he told our lads the lino buzzed him but the lino said he didn’t buzz him. He’s made a decision and tried to blame somebody else for it.
“I don’t think it was a penalty and it’s actually hit Ando on the T-shirt line, which I always thought wasn’t a penalty.
“From that moment, the referee lost control of the game
“It was lucky it ended when it did because our lads had lost their heads with it, especially when Luke Andersen got an elbow to the ear and he’s had to have it stitched up in two different places and he’s not giving penalties and red cards for that.
“I’m not normally someone to call out the ref but when you’ve seen your player walk off with blood pouring from his ear, down his face, and the ref didn’t even stop the game to start with, it’s poor.
“We didn’t do enough to win the game before the penalty, so I suppose on that front we can’t have any complaints, but I do feel that decisions change games and that one certainly did.”
