City Count Cost of Win
Last updated : 09 February 2002 By Andy Beill
 | Brian Little - "We were worthy winners" |
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David Beresford went off after half an hour with a hamstring injury, and is expected to miss a couple of games.
Little said: "David has a hamstring problem but it'll be about 48 hours before we know just how serious it is."
Mark Greaves (ankle) and Ryan Williams (leg) both received treatment on the pitch, before Richard Sneekes was taken off on the hour mark.
Again, Little explains the decision: "I took Richard off because he was limping a little bit at the start of the second half but we don't think he's a major worry at this moment in time.
"The thinking was that throwing Justin on wouldn't weaken us at all and it gave me the opportunity to put Greavsie and Julian in the middle of the park which helped us in the context of the game.
"Obviously Richard didn't want to come off - no player does - but it seemed the right decision at the time."
The City physio was also called on to attend to Gary Alexander and Paul Musselwhite in the closing minutes, but the pair were able to carry on.
Meanwhile, Little spoke of some of the appalling decisions made by the referee Mike Cowshed today.
"I was pleased to win and in terms of the game we probably had the worst end of the refereeing decisions.
"Certainly there were two that had a major bearing on the game rather than the result.
"Lawrie [Dudfield] was clean though before being pulled down and the referee should have sent a player off but between himself and his assistant he couldn't decide who was the guilty party so Rushden got away with that.
"He then awarded a debatable penalty to them, although having had time to run it through my head I can see why he gave it.
"But then to send Jason [Van Blerk] off for objecting to the decision was a bit silly because if players don't jump up and down and shout a lot when a penalty is given against them then they never will.
"So to have to contend with those decisions and still come out victors is a tremendous achievement from the players."