02 February 2021

Crawley boss John Yems blasts ‘clown’ referee Kevin Johnson

02 February 2021

Furious Crawley head coach John Yems branded referee Kevin Johnson “a clown” in the wake of their goalless League Two draw at home to Leyton Orient.

Orient had 19-year-old midfielder Hector Kyprianou sent off for a rash challenge on Jake Hessenthaler after only half an hour and Yems claimed Johnson did not do enough to protect his players.

“The referee was a clown and players could have got injured,” he said.

“I’ve seen some jokers in my time, but he caused ructions due to his incompetence.

“That is people’s livelihoods they could have endangered, someone could have been hurt and if there was a crowd here all sorts of things could have happened.”

The hosts could not make their extra man count and were left to rue Tom Nichols’ third-minute penalty miss as he smashed his effort against the bar. In the end they failed to manage a shot on target all match.

“It is worse than being frustrated – it is annoying,” added Yems.

“We weren’t at the races, we are a lot better than that and I am not happy with a point.

“Their keeper didn’t have a save (to make) and I’m not happy at all. I blame us for us for not breaking them down.”

Leyton Orient head coach Ross Embleton refused to be too hard on Kyprianou, saying: “I’ve not seen it but he’s got it wrong, that is what young players do.”

And Embleton praised his side’s ability to dig in for a point.

This was Orient’s first draw in 20 games and Embleton added: “We said we didn’t draw enough games, you need to pick up points and our ability to dig in was questioned.

“But in this game we showed it – that was the mindset. We want to get something out of games when not at our best.

“It was a team performance and all we asked for. We got a point that for over an hour no one would have expected.”

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