Aaron McGowan says players will need time to get used to new rules after opening-day confusion

Cobblers vice-captain Aaron McGowan believes managers, players and referees will face ‘difficulties’ as they try to get to grips with the new guidance on yellow cards, timekeeping and penalty incidents this season.

Both Northampton defender Akin Odimayo and Stevenage captain Carl Piergianni were punished for kicking the ball away in the first 20 minutes of Saturday’s opening game of the season. Piergianni could later have been sent off for fouling Mitch Pinnock.

Cobblers also felt they could have had a penalty when Jack Sowerby was brought down by Taye Ashby-Hammond late in the first half, however no spot-kick was awarded. There was a similar incident in Town’s final friendly against MK Dons last weekend when Peter Abimbola appeared to have been cleaned out by goalkeeper Craig MacGillivray but again only a goal-kick was given.

“I think they were lucky to finish with 11 players on the pitch,” said McGowan, who came on as a second half substitute during Saturday’s 1-0 defeat. “I like Carl, he’s a good player and a great lad, but the second one is a stonewall yellow card.

"In a normal situation, the first one isn’t a yellow card, but we’re going to have to get used to it. It might take a few weeks or months to find some consistency and for everyone to get used to the new rules.

"Even last week, Peter Abimbola at MK Dons, we felt he should have had a penalty but we went over it on the video and we were informed it wouldn’t have been a penalty. For me, having played this game for 11, 12 years, that’s a stonewall penalty, and it was a bit similar to the way Jack (Sowerby) went around the goalkeeper against Stevenage.

"I’m not sure if that’s a penalty or not. Normally it is but under the new rules, the suggestion seems to be that it isn’t. I think every team will have difficulty and every manager in the dugout will face some challenges until the grey areas are ironed out.”

Eight minutes of injury-time were played in the first half on Saturday followed by 14 in the second, meaning the game lasted over 112 minutes in total despite there being very few notable stoppages.

"It's a bit extreme,” McGowan added. “It felt like it was too much but I don't want to get myself in trouble.

"I came on around 70 minutes and I ended up playing nearly 40 minutes, which doesn't make sense, but we're going to have to get used to it. It needs to be consistent but after three or four games last season it settled down a bit. But I’d say that was extreme.”