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By Myles Hodgson
Power play: Christopher Samba (centre) latches on to Paul Robinson's goal kick to give Blackburn the leadSam Allardyce and Mark Hughes were united in their criticism of referee Anthony Taylor after Fulham cancelled out Blackburn’s controversial opening goal for a point.
Cheshire official Taylor, in his first season on the Premier League’s list, has already incurred the wrath of Sunderland manager Steve Bruce for his handling of the 2-2 draw with Birmingham on the opening weekend of the campaign.
And on Saturday Hughes claimed Taylor failed to see a shove by El-Hadji Diouf on Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer as he came to claim a free-kick on the edge of the box, which allowed Chris Samba to head into the empty net to give Blackburn the lead.
‘We were disappointed with the award of a goal because it was clearly a blatant foul on Mark and there were two other prior to that the referee missed as well,’ said Hughes.
‘I don’t think the official has refereed many games like that before and I just feel there is a lot going on off the ball when you’re playing the likes of Blackburn and you need an experienced referee to recognise it and understand what’s going on.'
Ful force: Clinton Dempsey celebratesAllardyce believes the referee should have sent off Schwarzer in the seventh minute, when he claimed he handled the ball outside the box prior to Morten Gamst Pedersen’s lob being cleared off the line by Brede Hangeland.
‘There was a little nudge for our goal, but I don’t think the referee was in a great position to see that and perhaps the assistant referee could have been a bit more help,’ said Allardyce.
Get in: Fulham's Clinton Dempsey scores the equaliser‘The unfortunate thing from our point of view is that we perhaps got away with it, but we were exposing Mark Schwarzer and his problems well before that.
‘In the seventh minute he handled the ball outside the box blatantly, which took the edge off a goal-bound shot which their lad headed off the line. The referee is in a fantastic position to see it and should be sending Schwarzer off.’The referee’s display, which Allardyce described as ‘difficult’, appeared to overshadow an otherwise impressive Fulham fight-back, despite the absence of injured striker Bobby Zamora, which culminated in a second-half equaliser from Clint Dempsey.
Blackburn’s lead had almost been wiped out during the first half, with debutant Carlos Salcido bursting down the left – as he did impressively for most of the afternoon – and hitting a curling shot from the edge of the box, which Paul Robinson did well to turn past the post.
Salcido, a close-season signing from PSV Eindhoven, was equally instrumental in Fulham’s equaliser, again bursting down the left before floating a tempting cross into the penalty area for Dempsey to head home and claim his fourth goal in as many games against Blackburn.
source: dailymail
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