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O'Neill accuses referee Dowd of making up rules

Martin O'Neill was fuming in the wake of the Carling Cup final © Getty Images

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Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill has accused referee Phil Dowd of "making up the rules as he went along" during the Carling Cup final.

Villa went ahead in the fourth minute at Wembley last weekend after Nemanja Vidic fouled Gabriel Agbonlahor in the area and James Milner converted the ensuing penalty. However, many were surprised that Vidic was not issued with a card over the incident.

United went on to win the game 2-1 thanks to goals from Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney, and O'Neill feels Dowd decided to ignore the rules of the game by allowing Vidic to remain on the field.

"The decision as it stood on Sunday was [...] a straightforward decision," he said. "It was a penalty kick and a sending off offence.

"The referee is there to administer the laws of the game, not to decide at that minute to make up some rules - and that's what Phil did, made them up just as he went along.

"This idea that it is to try and do your best to keep 22 players on the pitch - if players behave themselves then you will keep 22 players on the pitch. That is, unless the referee decides to have another ga-ga moment, or something along the way. It was ridiculous."

There were also concerns over the state of the Wembley pitch, with Sir Alex Ferguson suggesting it played a role in the hamstring injury that has now ruled Owen out for the rest of the season, and O'Neill agrees that it was not up to an acceptable standard.

"It was very poor," he said. "For a showpiece occasion at Wembley it was very poor. It looked as though they had played about 35 games on it in the previous week. Very poor indeed."

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