Nolan 'baffled' by bizarre penalty incident in win over Plymouth
Kevin Nolan admitted he was ‘baffled’ by the ‘weird’ penalty incident during his side’s 3-0 win at Plymouth Argyle on Saturday.
With eight minutes played at Home Park, referee Stephen Parkinson awarded Northampton a spot-kick for a foul from Bali Mumba on Terry Taylor as the two challenged for the ball inside the penalty area.
Plymouth players were up in arms about the decision but Parkinson waved away their appeals and about a minute later Dean Campbell was all set to step up and take the penalty, only for the referee to then speak to his linesman.
The two were in conversation for several seconds before the decision was overturned in favour of a free-kick to Plymouth, much to Nolan’s dismay, although in the end it did not matter as Cobblers coasted to victory thanks to three second half goals.
"You get given a penalty and then after 70, 80, 90 seconds, the referee decides he’s not going to give it,” said Nolan. “I’ve never been involved in a game where it’s taken that long unless it’s a VAR incident. It was so weird.
"Once you give the decision I don’t think you can turn back on it. The answer he’s given to us is that the linesman said that Terry found the Plymouth player first. I’m not too sure that’s how you get out of it.
"I’ve never seen that happen and I’ve never seen a referee give a penalty and take so long to go to his linesman and then change his decision. I would have thought you’d have to go back a long way to see a similar incident. It baffled me and there were some strange decisions all game but thankfully it didn’t matter in the end.”