Tom Cleverley addresses Lorent Tolaj sending off against Cobblers - and claims ref missed 'stonewall red card'
Pilgrims boss Tom Cleverley made no excuses for Lorent Tolaj’s red card against Northampton on Saturday, admitting the striker ‘completely lost his head’, but he did take issue with an earlier incident during Plymouth’s 3-0 defeat at Home Park.
Shortly after Tom Eaves headed Cobblers in front, Tolaj’s frustration boiled over when he lashed out at Michael Forbes off the ball. The incident was spotted by the linesman and he advised the referee to brandish a straight red card.
"I’m not going to dress it up because I’m disappointed with him and he knows why,” said Cleverley. “It was something we spoke about half-time because they were trying to provoke him but he deserved to be sent off.
"Northampton did their job and he’s not done his. I want my players to play on the edge but that can’t boil over and Northampton have probably seen from recent weeks that you can get under his skin because they’re not the first team to do it.
"I’m really disappointed him with but he must learn from it. That’s the best thing he can do and we’ll have a conversation to make sure he does learn because he’s an important player for us and now we’re going to miss him for the next three games.”
Tolaj appeared to say something to Kevin Nolan as he made his way back to the tunnel before he booted a loose ball in frustration.
"I’ll speak to him about that,” Cleverley added. “I think players should always be respectful to the opposition manager but he’s completely lost his head. It should be a big learning curve.”
Whilst accepting of the decision to dismiss Tolaj, Cleverley felt the referee missed a clear red card for Jordan Thorniley in the first half. The Cobblers defender already had one booking when he committed another foul as Plymouth broke.
"It’s the most stonewall red card you’ll see all season,” Cleverley added. “It feels insignificant now because we ended up losing comfortably and I have many more problems than ringing up Mike Jones, but some of the decisions have been unreliable.
"How he hasn’t been sent off I don’t know. Kevin takes him off five minutes later because he knows what happened. It might have had a different outcome on the game but it’s not the reason we capitulated in the second half.”
On his own position, Cleverley added: “I understand why the fans are frustrated and it’s a really tough period for the club. The numbers and the noise today was incredible but we have to accept their frustrations because it comes with the territory.
"I’m still confident I can get it back on track. It’s not going to be a quick turnaround but we have to dig in and get through this period.”