‘It’s ref justice!’ (From Swindon Advertiser)

‘It’s ref justice!’

9:00am Tuesday 13th May 2008 in Sport By Owen Houlihan

ALUN Rossiter was left fuming at the performance of referee Graham Flint after young Australian star Troy Batchelor was fined £600 in Robins' 47-43 defeat in Manchester last night.

Swindon slipped to a third successive Elite League away defeat after a last-heat decider at bottom side Belle Vue Aces and saw Batchelor censured for apparently gesturing towards the official after a controversial meeting at Kirkmanshulme Lane.

The defeat, plus Poole's surprise away win at Eastbourne cut the Blunsdon side's lead at the top of the table to just one point.

And Rossiter slammed a couple of Flint's key calls during the meeting as his side failed to follow up their early-season victory at the struggling Aces.

An incident-packed heat nine was at the centre of the storm, Batchelor hitting the deck on the first lap after coming under pressure from former Swindon star Charlie Gjedde.

The Robins youngster was convinced he had been nudged over, but Flint excluded him from the rerun, which Gjedde won to help his side establish a vital four-point cushion.

Rossiter was also incensed by an earlier incident when Flint failed to award a heat to clear leader Travis McGowan after Mads Korneliussen had gone down.

Rossiter said: "Troy is adamant that Charlie took him down - then the referee has fined him £600 for gesturing which really is over the top.

"From my point of view, it was tight going in (to the corner) but I can only go on what my rider says and Troy is positive he was touched.

"Decisions like that are a disgrace really. It was costly to us, as was the earlier one with Travis and it didn't go our way.'' He added: "A few things didn't go for us, but we'll keep our heads up and go again.''