The Red Devils fell to a 1-0 defeat in the semi-finals of the Continental Cup, but their manager believes they were let down by officials on the night
Manchester United boss Casey Stoney was furious with the standard of refereeing in her side’s Continental Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea on Wednesday night.
The Blues ran out 1-0 winners in a tight affair, one ultimately settled by Maren Mjelde’s thumping effort late in the second half – a goal Chelsea boss Emma Hayes described as the match’s only moment of quality.
Stoney believes that lack of quality also included the officiating and has called for something to be done to improve the standard in the women’s game.
“It could have been very different if we’d have been given a blatant, obvious penalty,” she said.
“When [my players] work hard, and they go out there and they perform, they deserve a better standard of refereeing.
“We have to do something, as a game, to improve that level. For me, that’s not a semi-final performance from a referee, with two top sides.
“They’re big moments that change games. We’ve been on the wrong end of two decisions over the last two games,” she continued, referring to Sunday’s FA Cup defeat to local rivals Manchester City.
With the score reading 2-1, United were convinced they had scored an equaliser, but the officials ruled that Ellie Roebuck had stopped Abbie McManus’ effort on the line.
City would then go down the other end and almost immediately extend their lead on their way to a 3-2 victory.
“All I want is for my players to be rewarded for their hard work,” Stoney said.
“We maybe lack a bit of clinical edge in the final third, which we have done all season, so that’s not different.
“But Jess [Sigsworth] is through on goal, one on one. Why would she go down? That’s a game-changing moment and a potential goalscoring opportunity.”
It was another very close defeat for newly-promoted Man Utd, who have equipped themselves brilliantly since coming into the Women’s Super League this season.
“It’s encouraging but frustrating, because we need to try and turn those fine margins into our favour.
“I’ve got a fantastic group of players who I’m extremely proud of.
“On a different day, maybe we come away with a different result, but we’re growing, we’re learning, we get stronger from these losses, we definitely do, we learn so much from them.
“There’s not many teams that would come into this league and six months in, be able to put on the show they did against Man City and have the resilience to come back and then put on that show against a very good Chelsea team.
“I’m really proud of the players and how far they’ve come.
“Hopefully, maybe at some point, our luck will turn.”
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