Chris Sutton v John Schofield
This wasn’t perhaps between two managers, but two assistant managers, and it was a massive one-off that made Chris Sutton look like he had a personality. Cheltenham had two former Imps on the bench, Barry Richardson and John Schofield, the latter as caretaker manager. After they took an early lead in November 2009, we levelled through Jamie Clarke and began to look the better side.
Then, Aaron Brown slipped into a tackle and got his marching orders. All hell broke loose, fists flew, and both Barry Richardson and our assistant, Ian Pearce, were sent off. Sutton was then also sent to the stands, leaving plenty of room on the Imps bench.
“Aaron Brown getting sent off put us on the back foot again,” said Sutton. “I thought he slipped, but that’s not the issue. All we expect is for people to be reasonable and not try to influence the referee which is what I felt happened.”
“We didn’t think what happened was right and we reacted. If we feel things are wrong then we should stand up for what we believe in but, on the other hand, there is a limit as well and we should accept that.”
He was referring to Schofield, who with typical Yorkshire diplomacy, played the incident down. “I think we were the side trying to win it and perhaps we could’ve done better when Lincoln went down to 10 men. I appealed for the red card like everybody else did. The referee made a decision and then it got very crowded in our technical area.”
Sutton later faced FA action (a £500 fine), and explained his stance a little clearly. “The issue I have is why their keeper ran 70 yards up the pitch to get him sent off and why their staff seemed to have a big influence because I don’t think the referee would have sent him off at all.
“It’s a tough thing for the referee but I think in situations like that players do try to influence and that’s what happened. I don’t know why I got sent to the stands,” he added.
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