Manning blasts laughing officials ‘disgraceful’ in Wycombe defeat

Referee Oliver Langford and his assistants drew the scorn of Liam Manning on Saturday after he claimed the officials were ‘laughing’ at him and his MK Dons team after losing to Wycombe Wanderers.

While Dons dropped to the foot of the League One table as a result of their fifth defeat in a row, Manning felt the officials allowed the Chairboys to gratuitously time-waste in the second-half in particular, while overlooking what he felt was a penalty for a foul on Daniel Harvie in the first.

Manning, who has been vocal in his displeasure of the level of officiating several times this season, felt the awarding of only four minutes stoppage time at the end was a poor decision, and branded the officials ‘disgraceful.’

“Where the officials got four minutes from I'll never know,” he said. “That's the frustrating thing - their performance was shocking.

“We've got a group who are fighting and scrapping, then you've got a linesman smiling and laughing at you in the game. It's disgraceful to be honest.”

Wycombe made life tough for Dons

Giving Wycombe a lead to defend and hold on to made life even harder for Dons on Saturday, Manning said.

Marking man-for-man, Dons grew all the more frustrated in the second-half, with the ball often at keeper Jamie Cumming’s feet with precious little to aim at.

Manning said: “When you give Wycombe something to defend and hold on to, they're so difficult to face. They do a good job at killing the game.

“They're really difficult to play against, going man-for-man and how extreme they are at it, following you around the pitch. It's extremely difficult, and what they want you to do is to load it up and go long.

“We have to be better at that when we do it, and it also doesn't suit us. Then individually, we have to be better and control the game our way.

“They've made it hard, but we have to be better.”