Mulvey unhappy with officials

Brisbane Roar coach Mike Mulvey has criticised the officials after his side’s 1-0 loss to the Central Coast Mariners in Gosford on Sunday.

The result sees the Roar needing positive results from their two remaining games – at home to Melbourne Heart and Sydney FC – to give them any chance of making the top six.

Mulvey felt his side were subjected to a range of ‘niggly’ and ‘repetitive’ fouls by the Mariners which were not addressed by referee Alan Milliner.

“We made one tackle in the first half which I think deserved a yellow card and he (Jack Hingert) got it straight away,” Mulvey said.

“There would have been 10 or 11 fouls before that that had gone unchecked.”

Mulvey was also critical of how fourth official Tim McGilchrist handled his request for feedback.

“I was trying to have a word with the fourth official because he spent 20 minutes talking to Graham Arnold (prior to half-time),” he said.

“I just went over and said could I have a word please.”

Mulvey said the impact of what Mariners coach Arnold said to the officials was insignificant and that his criticism was of the officials.

“(In the second half) I asked him if I could have a word and he said he didn’t want to talk to me and I said ‘well communication is out the window’,” Mulvey said.

“He (McGilchrist) finally came over and asked me what I was on about.”

Officiating aside, the Roar did have opportunities to take at least a point from New South Wales.

A 35th-minute goal from Bernie Ibini was nearly cancelled out by Stefan Nijland in the 72nd minute when the Dutchman rattled the post.

Mulvey was surprised the 24 year-old failed to score.

“Stefan Nijland is somebody with an immense amount of talent. I expected him to knock the free-kick in actually that hit the post,” he said.

“He does it repeatedly at training from all angles he is sticking it in the top corner. He had his radar off there by about one degree unfortunately.”

Despite the perceived imbalance in some aspects of the officiating, Mulvey said his side were off the mark compared to the recent month which saw them unbeaten in four games up until Sunday.

“We tried to go through the middle of the park too much in the first half, we didn’t use the wide areas which is our real strengths. Consequently it was stop start, stop start,” he said.

“Today was not a good day at the office for us but I am confident we will bounce back.”

Mulvey said his side could still make the finals despite a two-point deficit to Newcastle as they do have a game in hand on the Jets.

“100 percent (we will make it),” he said.

“I am very confident we will qualify for finals. It’s not an over-confidence it’s just based on the facts.

“We have got to home games to come, we have been playing well. We weren’t at our best today but we were still dangerous.”