Chris Coleman: Ref got it right

[briggcov]

CHRIS COLEMAN has called for the return of instant video replays in the dugout.

The Sky Blues boss is waiting to hear if he will be banished to the stands for tonight's match at the Ricoh Arena after losing his cool with referee Phil Dowd on Saturday.

But Coleman insists that if there had been an eight-second replay in the dugout he would never have reacted the way he did, admitting that Dowd got the decision on Bristol City's opening goal spot on.

"Every year you go to the league managers and referees meeting and this year is the campaign to respect referees, which I am all for," he said

"They have taken monitors out of the dugout but if I had seen the replay of the first challenge on the keeper that would have stopped me throwing my toys out of the pram because I would have said, 'Fair enough, I can see why he didn't give it.' A few things happened after that and then the penalty really got me to boiling point."

"I always had a monitor at Fulham and, more often than not, it stopped me confronting the referee because on a second look at it I could see that he has got it right rather than wrong. However, if I see he has got it wrong I am going to try and pull him on it.

"I know how hard it is to be a referee and we are trying to help them, but that doesn't mean covering up for them and hiding their mistakes.

"There are only two or three big decisions in a game, so an eight-second playback is nothing.

"Cricket, rugby, tennis have all got it and yet football is the biggest game in the world so I don't understand why we haven't got it because it is not making it harder for referees, it is making it easier.

"I haven't got a problem with Phil Dowd who is a very capable referee, although I had a problem with him in the first 45 minutes.

"It's a man's game and we have to behave in the right way - in that flashpoint I didn't behave and say the right things.

"It is all right saying resect the referees, but let's help them out by having monitors - more often than not, it will stop managers doing what I did on Saturday."