Rosenior criticises referee Tierney after bizarre pre-match incident

Liam Rosenior criticised Paul Tierney after the referee bizarrely ended up in the middle of Chelsea’s pre-match huddle before their defeat at home against Newcastle.

Anthony Gordon’s first-half goal was enough to give the Magpies the points and deal a blow to Chelsea’s bid to secure a top-four finish.

But much of the focus afterwards was on the match official standing in the middle of Chelsea’s players as they gathered together just before kick-off.

Blues head coach Rosenior says he will contact PGMOL, the referees’ body, about the incident.

With Newcastle about to kick-off, it seemed that Tierney refused to move as Chelsea’s players congregated.

“I want to protect my players. My players made a decision that they wanted to be around the ball, to respect the ball and show unity and leadership,” Rosenior said.

“That is a decision between the leadership group and the team. There is nothing that they’re doing with that huddle that is disrespectful to the opposition.

“I didn’t speak to Paul today. I didn’t think it was the right thing. But I’ll be speaking to PGMOL. I’ll be speaking to the refs, just trying to get an understanding of what happened.”

Rosenior was also annoyed by Tierney not awarding Chelsea a penalty when Cole Palmer went down under a challenge from Nick Woltemade.

“If Paul had focused more on his job, which was to make the right decision, then we’d have a penalty today,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone can say Woltemade doesn’t kick Cole down.”