Neil on warpath at 'panto villain'

ANGRY Stoke boss Alex Neil blasted referee Andy Woolmer’s performance as the fiery Midlands derby against West Brom boiled over.

- Charlie Gregory

Besides the Potters surrendering a lead to lose for a second successive home game, they also had Ben Pearson sent off in stoppage time for a second booking.

And that left Neil a very frustrated man.

“The referee’s performance is as poor as I’ve seen at senior level,” the Stoke boss said.

“The way to gauge a referee’s performance is if you don’t really notice them, they’ve had a pretty good game.

“Today, he was like a pantomime villain for both teams, particularly for us, and you could see that boil over.

“Our players played with anger and frustration due to some of the decisions as they felt they were hard done by.

“They didn’t play with a freedom or a focus on the game that they should have had, and that affected some of the performances.