Southend United manager Paul Sturrock fumes at Michael Timlin red card against Oxford United (From Echo)

Southend United manager Paul Sturrock fumes at Michael Timlin red card against Oxford United

5:03pm Wednesday 22nd August 2012 in Sport By Chris Phillips

SOUTHEND United manager Paul Sturrock felt an “unbelievable” red card shown to midfielder Michael Timlin was to blame for his side’s 2-0 defeat at Oxford last night.

Timlin was dismissed in the 27th minute after being shown two yellow cards by referee Oliver Langford.

But Sturrock did not agree with the decision.

“The red card changed the game and I thought it was so soft it was unbelievable if I’m honest,” said Sturrock.

“I don’t understand how the ref has shown two yellow cards for those two challenges and it made it very hard for us after that.

“Before then I felt we had been doing OK but with 10 men it was always going to be difficult and, although the players put a real shift in, it was a frustrating night for us in the end.”

Substitute Tom Craddock bagged both goals for Oxford in the second half at the Kassam Stadium to condemn Blues to a third successive defeat of the season.