Lincoln City head coach Tom Shaw was left seeking clarity over the touchline rules after being booked during the 1-1 draw with Southampton at Sincil Bank.
The Imps joint head coach was shown a yellow card by referee Andrew Kitchen early in the second half, with the reason not immediately obvious from the stands. Given the increasingly fractious nature of the game, and some frustration around a number of decisions, it initially appeared as though tempers may have boiled over in the technical area.
We asked Tom afterwards whether things had become heated on the touchline, but his explanation suggested the booking was instead linked to technical area regulations and the way those rules are currently being applied.
“Yeah, the rules just seem to differ slightly from week to week at the minute,” he told me in his post-match press conference.
“We’re just trying to get our heads around the five-second countdown.
“Myself and Chris were standing up, but that was allowed for the last six games, so we’ll just get some clarity from the powers that be on what the rules will be moving forward.”
The five-second countdown has become part of the latest efforts to reduce time-wasting and speed the game up, while technical area behaviour is also being monitored closely. However, Tom’s frustration appeared to centre on consistency rather than the principle itself.
From his point of view, both he and Chris Cohen had been standing in a manner which had not attracted punishment in previous matches, only for that to become an issue against Southampton.
It was a small moment in the context of the game itself, but it added to a second half in which the home crowd became increasingly frustrated with the officiating.
City still managed to find a late equaliser through Mikkel Ladefoged, ensuring Tom’s booking became little more than a footnote, although it is clearly something the coaching staff want clarified before the next fixture.
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