Friend overly Friendly?

Cheltenham Town have criticised referee Kevin Friend for being to friendly with the Everton team during last nights FA Cup third round tie.

Everton were awarded a controversial penalty after 20 minutes when Cheltenham captain Alan Bennett climbed over the back of Marouane Fellaini.

Fellaini didn't jump for the ball and Bennett ended up going over the top of him. It was certainly soft.

There were few appeals from the Everton team, but Friend was convinced it was foul and awarded the spotkick.

Leighton Baines stepped up to convert the penalty and from that point on it was pretty much game over for the plucky League Two outfit.

After the game Marouane Fellaini later apologised for the decision, not that the Belgian personally did anything wrong to sway the decision.

'Fellaini at the end apologised to me, he said 'sorry about the penalty', I said to the ref at least I got one apology, he said it was stonewall. I don't know what game he was watching.' Cheltenham captain Alan Bennett told The BBC.

He continued: 'It's a standard League Two challenge for me, and he's [the referee] trying to make friends I think, I don't know what he's doing, He was calling them all by nicknames and referring to us by numbers, maybe he got carried away with the situation.'


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