JFK to fight Stoke charge

Joe Kinnear launched a massive defence of his conduct in the 2-2 draw with Stoke at the weekend, following his dismissal to the stands and subsequent charge up in front of the now notorious FA Kangaroo Court. Kinnear said:

'I'm going to defend myself against any charge because on this occasion I have done nothing wrong and I'm determined to clear my name. I still haven't been told exactly why I was sent from the dug-out, but I believe it was for supposedly saying something to the linesman.

I don't know because I've not been told by the referee. I will fight this because I'm frustrated and disappointed it has happened. The thing that I find strange is I've no idea how the linesman has heard what I've supposedly said from where he was standing and with all the noise that was going on.

Chris (Hughton) was having his say and I did say something, I know what I said, but I'll wait until I have to give my defence before I talk about that any more. There was plenty of noise around, the fans behind the linesman were absolutely furious and they were saying plenty to him as well, the whole place went crazy.

I'm not blaming the linesman or the referee. It's not their fault Stoke scored, we defended the free-kick badly and that was why they scored. It's our own fault we conceded a goal in injury time because we knew they were dangerous from set-pieces and we switched off at the crucial moment.

The free-kick should never have been given, it wasn't a foul, there was barely any contact at all and I couldn't believe it was judged to be foul play. Mistakes happen though. We've dropped four points in our last two home games and if you think back to the Manchester City game, we've dropped six really. Against City they were given a penalty which never was and we had a player sent off for it which was another major blow for us to deal with.

Against Fulham there was a foul in the build-up to their second goal which the referee ignored and those things are really difficult to take. If we had a couple more points the league table would look a lot better for us. We have been getting a raw deal in recent weeks and we can only hope that turns for us in the second half of the season.

When you think about all the injuries we've picked up as well, lady luck hasn't really been kind to us has she? But we are soldiering on and things will turn in our favour as long as we keep plugging away.'

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