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Stockport boss Jim Gannon accused referee Darren Deadman of endangering the safety of his players during yesterday's match with Colchester, and will take the matter up with the Police.
Hatters forward Matty McNeil ended up in hospital with concussion after a particularly bad challenge that earned Colchester man Paul Reid a yellow card, but Gannon thinks more should have been done to curb the U's physical approach to the game:
"The more you look at it the more you realise the player had no intention to play the ball. We have decided to provide the police with video evidence plus photographs of injuries to our players and we hope they take action.
"Unfortunately, we're in a game now, where the manner in which games are being refereed threatens the safety of the players. Until someone makes a stand we're going to consistently have poor decisions like that. We've informed the referee of the action we'd like to take.
"During the game I told him that I felt his decisions were endangering players' safety. I made it quite clear to him at half-time and we have the tape of that and we'll be using that as part of the evidence. Unfortunately players can go round seriously injuring players on the pitch and the Referees Association and the FA take no action.
I can only imagine the way Paul Lambert prepares his team against our young players - we've seen history of it in the past - and I can only imagine the comments he's made to his players."
Gannon lodged a complaint three weeks ago with the FA about bias against his side. The FA agreed to consider the issue. Referee Deadman, who refereed the Bulls at home to Yeovil in August, issued four yellow cards to Colchester yesterday and had sent off five players in his previous six games.
Colchester boss Paul Lambert's post match comments included the line: "There's no point in having all the ability in the world if you're not prepared to get hurt" in praising his players' level of commitment in the match.
