Stockport staff took to confront officials over controversial decisions in the chaotic playoff with Leyton Orient.
Charlie Kelman gave Leyton Orient a controversial lead from an offside position in the first half, before Stockport quickly turned the scoreline around through Ollie Norwood’s penalty and a Fraser Horsfall header. League One top scorer Kelman levelled.
Referee Ben Speedie and his officials were booed off by the away end after they missed some key calls, including Orient’s clear offside opener.
As the teams went down the tunnel, Stockport staff confronted the officials, no doubt making their feelings about that goal clear.
Stockport boss Dave Challinor made a point to the officials as they headed into their dressing room.
There was more controversy in the second half, with around 20 minutes to go, Kelman cut back in the box and was tripped by Norwood who couldn’t get the ball… only for no penalty to be given.
Shortly after, Horsfall felt his side should have had a penalty.
Orient had a chance to win it right at the end, O’Neill sent in a cross which found him at the back stick in loads of space. He met it on the volley only to send it over.
Leyton Orient have a one-goal lead against Stockport, despite this being Charlie Kelman’s position before he scored 😬 pic.twitter.com/mTdCzNBica
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 10, 2025
Leyton Orient have broken the deadlock thanks to Charlie Kelman’s 26th goal this season ⚽️🔴 pic.twitter.com/PzvylKKBxY
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 10, 2025
Stockport County boss Dave Challinor speaking to Sky Sports:“Super proud of my players. Massive, massive credit to them for reacting in the manner they did with such an injustice in the first half to go and perform as they did in the second half.
“Like I say, when you get to these games, you want them to go and show what they can do in every aspect in terms of tactical stuff, but in terms of that mentality and they’ve showed that really well, so super proud of them.”
Challinor on the first goal for Orient:
“I probably don’t need to say anything because it’s clearly obvious.
“The problem for me comes in the process of what they’ve gone through because there will be loads of subjective decisions on a football pitch where I don’t think it was a penalty, they might think it was a penalty. All them bits.
“That’s plain and clearly four yards offside. Now there could be an argument that says we don’t know whether their player flicked it on.
“There’s five people [officials] here and they couldn’t come up with the right decision. They’ve told me they saw the flick on and the linesman has no idea who is playing Kelman onside. Well it’s pretty obvious, he’s four yards offside.
“This is arguably the biggest game in my managerial career, that’s the worst decision I’ve seen in 15 years.
“I know it’s a tough job but they’re supposed to be the best we’ve got and if we can’t rely on them to make those decisions, I don’t know what we do.”
“We’ve gotta make sure we get the glaringly obvious ones right”
Dave Challinor was not happy with some of the refereeing decisions today pic.twitter.com/OpOL15Q2zr
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 10, 2025
Leyton Orient boss Richie Wellens speaking to Sky Sports:
“Good game, it was difficult at times for us, we let little situations go by.
“I spoke before the game about momentum shifts and we didn’t handle that five or 10-minute spell where Stockport had that momentum.
“My fault a little bit, I felt it coming. I should’ve made the changes probably two or three minutes earlier.
“However, I was just worried about Tom James and Jack Currie’s fitness, putting them on for so long.
“Little bit my fault but the players responded well and I thought we finished the game strong.”
Leyton Orient captain Omar Beckles speaking to Sky Sports:
“I think [we’ve shown] that character we’ve shown to get into the play-offs in the first place.
“It’s been tough, they’re a good side, they caused us a bit of damage from set-pieces and we’re going to have to get back to the drawing board and address that.
“But the boys showed character to stay in the game and to go back with something to play for.
“You’ve got a bit of everything in that game. They boys had to dig deep and hopefully we can go one better and get a result at theirs.
“He [Charlie Kelman] has been class. I mentioned earlier half of his goals have been offside.
“He’s an absolute fox in the box, he works really hard and credit to him, his hard work is paying off. We need his confidence, we need his goals.
“I think we’ve got a chance of going there and upsetting them. The beauty of the EFL is there is no VAR and there is room for errors. That’s what makes this game special.”
Leyton Orient’s double goalscorer Charlie Kelman speaking to Sky Sports:
“We know we’ve got goals in the team. We’re very resilient now. If that happened at the start of the season, we would’ve rolled over, but we kept going.
“It’s 2-2 and we now have to go to their place and get a result but full of confidence. We changed shape, we felt better so we’ll take that into Wednesday.
“We’re confident, I think a draw was a fair result today so we’re going to have to try and better that.”
“A draw was probably a fair result” 🤝
Richie Wellens reflects on his side’s draw with Stockport 🆚 pic.twitter.com/aE7BRnOwvQ
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 10, 2025
Twitter users reacted as Stockport staff confront officials over the controversial decisions in what was a chaotic playoff with Leyton Orient…
@dharvey4: That ref was a disgrace.
@plasticpearl25: People say they don’t want VAR and they’d be fine with mistakes if it was gone. Then something like this happens and…
@chrisjlear: Oh look, another shocking set of EFL officials ruining a whole season with their ineptitude. Colour me shocked 😱
@Ninian_Talk: League 1 is gonna be great 💀😂
@leedsnoinfidel: Can’t believe I’m saying this but I’m actually looking forward to var next season. There’s just been too many horrific decisions I’ve witnessed. Refs are incompetent
@GrapsTalk: Feel there needs to be a middle ground between moaning about VAR and then saying we desperately need it every time a ref makes a howler. Still, how on Earth have they missed that?
@theWycombeWay: Farcical.
@_callumfowler: EFL officials for you, unreal
@Alex_Shep_Urzz: Put this up there with one of the worst missed offsides I’ve ever seen. Feel for Stockport, that’s outrageous especially in such a huge match. Officiating standard is so low.
@DerwentReds: This is what worries me for the play offs. Not our ability but the officials. If officials in league 1 can’t do the basics how can we reply on national league officials to #YCFC
@Darren081273: This is one of the worst Refs in the EFL… it’s all about him being the star on the TV cameras. I’m convinced that officials like this make controversial decisions to get themselves noticed.
@ThomasHill5: Things like this need to be looked at during half time and over turned. It’s so utterly stupid that this has been allowed. Just needs the ref to come out and say listen I’ve fucked up you can’t have that, it’s not even tight enough to give him the benefit of doubt haha.
@trainfanmatt: But nothing will be done about it and no bad words can be said of officials! @FA_PGMOL will probably reward the lino with a place in the playoff final 🤣
