Magilton: Kemp reaction ´unacceptable´

Matthew Kemp’s future at Melbourne Victory is unclear after he reacted angrily to his substitution in their 3-1 loss to Newcastle on Saturday.

Kemp was taken off in the 42nd minute at AAMI Park, and the full back had a nightmare of an evening with all three of the Jets goal coming via the right flank.

Victory coach Jim Magilton chose to replace the 31-year-old with Leigh Broxham, and Kemp reacted angrily – gesturing furiously at his coach before storming down the tunnel.

Magilton condemned Kemp’s reaction as ‘totally unacceptable’, and answered with ‘who knows’ when asked if he had played his last game for the club.

Kemp’s petulant reaction and the defeat were further compounded in the second half when Carlos Hernandez was twice booked for needless fouls on Sung-Hwan Byun, the second of them with eight minutes left.

But Magilton was reluctant to condemn the Costa Rican for his dismissal.

“Carlos is showing a desire to win the game (and) he got the ball,” Magilton said.

“To me it wasn’t a booking, (in those) conditions you’ve got to take that into consideration.”

“There’s no one going to be more upset than Carlos about that (getting sent off) but we’re 3-1 down, we’re chasing the game, he’s just missed an opportunity to get us back into the game.”

“So taking that into consideration I understand.”

“Should he have shown restraint? Yes without any doubt.”

Hernandez became the eighth Victory player sent off in 24 games this season, seven of them senior players, and stand-in skipper Harry Kewell put the lack of discipline down to frustration at a season that hasn’t gone to plan.

“I think it’s just frustration,” Kewell said of the red cards.

“Throughout the whole game again we do so much but we just don’t finish teams.”

“And like the manager said we’ve been here now for a while and we’re working hard in training, everything’s falling together out there on the training pitch and then we come here and we let in three sloppy goals.”

“And it’s heartbreaking, but we’ve still got a chance, we’re not going to give up.”

“We’re going to look at the game, we’re going to take the bad bits out and hopefully correct them and look forward to the Sydney game.”