‘I didn’t think common sense was applied’ – Millwall boss questions application of time-wasting rule in Bristol City win

After Millwall was penalized twice for taking too long over restarts during their 2-0 victory against Bristol City, Alex Neil questioned the implementation of the new five-second rule.

A rigorous five-second countdown for goal kicks and throw-ins is one of the new regulations implemented this summer, and the Lions violated both early in their Championship opener at Ashton Gate.

Referee Lewis Smith gave the Robins a corner because Lukas Jensen took too long to take a goal kick. After that, a throw-in by the Lions was overruled and awarded to the home team once more. When Josh Coburn broke through one-on-one and tumbled down after pushing the ball past Sam Tickle, Millwall also had a penalty shout dismissed. Coburn was booked for

Referee Lewis Smith gave the Robins a corner because Lukas Jensen took too long to take a goal kick. After that, a throw-in by the Lions was overruled and awarded to the home team once more. Josh Coburn broke through one-on-one and tumbled down after knocking the ball past Sam Tickle; Coburn was cautioned for what appeared to be a dive. Millwall also had a penalty shout waved down.

Shortly after the refreshment break, Adam Randell received a second yellow card for hauling back Coburn as he attempted to counter, reducing Bristol City to ten men. Coburn scored goals on each side of halftime as the Lions took advantage of their man advantage. A late third by Kyrell Lisbie was disallowed due to offside.

Neil was happy with his team’s performance, although he had issue with the way the new regulations were implemented.

In Neil’s opinion, “the game sort of changed a little bit between ten and twelve minutes when the referee started making some stupid decisions.” “Goal kicks being converted into a corner, throw-ins being turned over. After ten minutes, who is attempting to squander time?

“I don’t know what’s happened at the other games, but it won’t surprise me if there are loads of games throughout the Championship where that’s going to happen. It’s just a little bit stupid.

“In the summer, when we were speaking about it, I did say to them, ‘What happens when we take a long throw? What happens if you’re going to play it out to the back but then they commit enough men forward, so then you change your mind, you’re not going to play it to the back, because they’ve committed three men, you’re going to put it forward?’

“What I was told was that common sense would be applied. I didn’t think common sense was applied in the first fifteen minutes of the game. What I will say is, as the game wore on, it did get better. I thought that, from that point of view, it got better.

“That rule, in my opinion, has really been introduced towards the end of games when somebody’s trying to kill a game, not in the first ten minutes when you’re trying to get the pace of the game. Because we started really, really well. We certainly weren’t trying to slow the game down. I didn’t think Bristol were trying to slow the game down either. Sometimes you just need to give your players enough time to get themselves back into shape. Then from there, the sending off is the next big incident after that.

“I can’t remember the first booking, but the second booking, when we roll away from them, I wasn’t happy he didn’t let the game go. So the fact that he’s stopping a promising attack, absolutely, it’s a booking. I can’t remember the first one, so I can’t say that it should’ve resulted in a sending-off.

“A bit like Josh Coburn’s. If he’s made contact with Josh, it should’ve been a penalty. If he didn’t and Josh has simulated, it’s a booking. So I’ll need to look at it back. It’s really hard to tell at the time when I saw it.

“What I do want to make clear, I didn’t actually think the referee had a bad game. I thought that little ten-minute spell he was getting a little bit too overeager. Then the game settled down, and I thought he managed it really well. So from that perspective, it’s certainly not a criticism. It’s more a criticism of the rules not being applied properly, if that makes sense.”