WELLINGTON Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert has confirmed that the club will appeal against the 77th minute red card shown to Ben Sigmund in the 3-1 loss to Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium.
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The Phoenix were trailing 2-1 when Sigmund was adjudged to have denied Jeronimo Neumann a clear goal-scoring opportunity and was sent off.
Television replays suggested Neumann had gone down without contact from Sigmund and the Phoenix will ask the FFA to review the red card.
Eight minutes later Neumann rubbed salt in the Phoenix’s wounds by slotting home Adelaide’s game clinching third goal.
The day had started well for the Phoenix with Stein Huysegems putting them ahead three minutes before halftime with his third goal in four games.
Things began to go wrong 10 minutes into the second spell when Neumann grabbed an equaliser for the home side after the visitor’s defence failed to clear the ball cleanly.
Thirteen minutes later Cassio, making his 100th A-League appearance, put Adelaide 2-1 up though there was clearly an offside in the build up that went unnoticed by referee Jarred Gillet and his assistant.
After watching video footage of the Sigmund incident Herbert confirmed the club would ask for a review of the red card.
“I think we have to looking at that,” Herbert said.
Asked in the media conference if he thought Neumann had dived Herbert suggested those asking the question had seen the same footage and that they should make up their own minds.
Meanwhile, Adelaide boss John Kosmina said he was proud of the way his players responded after last weekend’s 2-1 loss to Melbourne Victory and didn't want to get caught up in talking about the referee.
“You make your own luck sometimes and the guys have put a good effort in,” Kosmina said.
“Last week was tough, it was a hard one to take, but I think today we went out and we tried to play football, and good intent gets you good outcomes and we got a good outcome today.”
“We got three goals and with a bit of luck we could have had a couple more as well so the hunger was definitely there and it’s nice that we can get wins at home – the fans come out and see that, we scored three goals and played some good football.”
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