Swindon boss expects consequences after 'major whoopsie' but for who?

Swindon Town manager Ian Holloway expects there to be consequence for either the officials or his side after the Robins sent substitute Aaron Drinan on to the field at Kenilworth Road last night in their Vertu Trophy victory over the Hatters despite the forward not being named on, an incident he described as a ‘massive whoopsie.’

The Robins top goalscorer with a mighty 19 goals from 23 appearances so far this season prior to yesterday evening’s contest, hadn’t been named on the teamsheet that was circulated before the game, Ryan Tafazolli included instead, but was then on the bench and brought on as part of a triple half-time substitution. He entered the fray with the scores level at 1-1, Jerry Yates’ seventh minute penalty cancelled out by Will Wright’s cross-shot that flew into the corner, before Swindon had the lead on 53 minutes, Filozofe Mabete tapping in after a bad error from James Shea.

Just after the hour mark, the game was then stopped for eight minutes as Drinan’s inclusion was brought to the attention of referee Peter Wright, who after much deliberation with his assistants and eventual discussions with both managers, allowed the game to be played out to a conclusion. Drinan went on to test Shea with a volley that was parried away, the closest either side came to scoring again, which meant Swindon went through to the quarter-finals, although the muted celebrations afterwards from the players was a clear indication they weren’t sure whether they had actually gone through or not.

Luton boss Jack Wilshere stated afterwards that he expects the EFL to investigate what went on and giving his version of events, Holloway, who has managed over 1,000 games, expects there to be some kind of punishment due to the mistake, although he was unsure for who, saying: “Somebody noticed that apparently our teamsheet was wrong, that was the hold-up.

"No-one showed us it on this electrical gadget and apparently Tafazolli was on there, not Aaron Drinan, so I said do you want to take him off and they all went, ‘oh I don't know.’ Me and Jack know that usually they show you an Ipad and go ‘is that your team?’ They didn't show us that so anyway, in fairness I offered to take Drinan off and Jack went ‘that’s not his fault, just get on with it.’ There’ll be some sort of action as something's gone wrong, and the system, when we used to write our teamsheet down it was never wrong was it?

"But when they get it on an Ipad and it's not then shown to us, how can I then say it's not my team? I haven't checked it, so no-one's checked it, and it's too late to check it when the game’s going. They noticed because one of their staff noticed it, so it's a major whoopsie isn't it from I would suggest the officials. So is that us? Is that them? They've got to have a right good look at themselves and why don't we go back to the written ones, it's a darn sight easier.”