DESPAIRING City boss Ashley Vincent insisted there was “no point” following up allegations that a referee swore at one of his players.

Vincent received a report accusing man-in-the-middle Guy Thrower of telling a City player to “shut the **** up” during Wednesday’s 2-0 defeat at Coventry United.

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Vincent highlighted a lack of communication as part of what he felt was an “awful” performance from Thrower in spite of having no arguments with the sending off of Luke English and the two penalties that consigned City to defeat.

The frustration emanated from a lack of consistency over bookings, particularly in the second half when free-kicks were the only punishment dished out for some cynical United challenges.

Elaborating on his assessment of Thrower’s management of the game, Vincent said: “I asked if I could ask him a question, I didn’t shout or swear and he rolled his eyes, turned his back and ran the other way.

“On top of that my physio went to treat a player and the referee was telling one of my players to shut the **** up and go away. If that’s what refereeing is then we are in trouble.”

Asked if that allegation would be followed up, Vincent replied: “No, because no one ever does anything.

“The referees are in charge and what they say goes. Whether you are happy, sad, disappointed, there is no process. They don’t want to talk to you.

“He didn’t want to talk about it or acknowledge what he may or may not have seen or why he gave decisions. There is no point in talking, nothing ever happens or changes, the standard is the same.

“We would be naïve to go down the road of talking, it is something we have to deal and another obstacle you must prepare for.

“The officials are there doing an honest job in terms of what they see, the problem is that some of the referees haven’t played football so when they do see things they don’t always know what is happening or why. That’s a big problem.

“The inconsistency between free-kicks seems to be down to them picking a way and then it always seems to go that way in games.

“We have been on the right side of that as well, maybe not this season but there have been games where the referee has just given us everything.

“As a manager you’re not going to say anything, particularly when it is such a rare occurrence and I think every manager would think there should be more consistency, I am not the only one.

“As for doing something about it, I don’t think you can. That’s to do with referees, assessors and their coaching. As managers we have to assess performances, I don’t know whether that’s the case for them.

“We just seem to be getting the same old referees making the same old decisions. I am not sure how much they go back and talk about things, what gets followed up, I am not privy to that.”

Asked whether better communication from officials would help, Vincent replied: “Absolutely, having a simple conversation at times and explaining where the thought process of certain things comes from would at least allow you to prepare for what is coming.”

Thrower politely declined to comment.