Coyle backs demoted ref
10:50am Friday 17th February 2012 in Latest By Marc Iles
nOWEN Coyle has questioned the decision to demote referee Stuart Atwell from the Premier League – just months after he wrongly sent off Gary Cahill at Tottenham.
The 29-year-old official was removed from the select group of Premier League officials yesterday after four years in the top flight.
Atwell had seen the red card he dished out to Cahill for a professional foul on Scott Parker overturned in December – a decision Coyle had described at the time as “incredible.”
But the Wanderers boss had sympathy for the Nuneaton-born referee and criticised the timing of the announcement.
“In the middle of the season for one young referee to be taken from the list, I don’t understand that situation,” he said. “Who is to say that if he continued to referee until the end of the season he might not have put a foot wrong, having learned from his mistakes and showed that he learned those lessons.
“In the last three months he might have been the standout referee. I think there is a timing issue there but the powers that be decide that.”
Atwell will now ply his trade in the Football League, where he had served for just one season before being fast-tracked to the top flight in 2008.
And Coyle believes he will return to the big time again, if he can react in the right manner.
“I’ve spoken to him since the Gary Cahill incident and I have always found him pleasant and well-mannered and he wants to be as good at his job as he possibly can. So from that end, I find it difficult to understand the decision and I wish him well,” he said.
“Given his age and everything else, he will bounce back but I’m sure it will be difficult to take. He’s not the only referee that’s made a mistake this year.
“I hope he will have the strength of character to bounce back from that and in football we all know that there’s always a kick in the teeth around the corner and it’s how you deal with that.”
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