Nigel Adkins felt his side should have had a stoppage-time penalty in Charlton’s 2-1 defeat at Lincoln City.
Jayden Stockley had his shirt pulled in the box but no spot kick was given and the home side went up the other end and scored a later winner.
The Addicks started brightly but Elliot Lee was forced off in the 19th minute which changed the momentum of the first half.
Speaking to CharltonTV Adkins said: “I thought we were good for 20 minutes. Things that we worked on, in respect of trying to break the lines with Elliot Lee, get to counter attack, we had three or four good opportunities in the opening 20 minutes.
“Then Elliot has gone off ill, so we’ve adapted a little bit, put Charlie Kirk in the 10 position, changed [Jonathan] Leko and brought Corey [Blackett-Taylor] on but the game went away from us for a little bit there and we were allowing them out too easily. So we changed it a little bit at half time.”
The Imps took the lead through an unfortunate Jayden Stockley own goal just before the hour mark but Charlton weren’t behind for long with Sam Lavelle poking home after Lincoln failed to clear a corner.
Adkins said: “Obviously the goal we conceded is a comedy of errors where Macca [Craig MacGillivray] has dropped the ball onto Jayden and it is an own goal. We get back in the game. Jayden could have scored from the header but we thought we’d have the opportunity on second phases, so at 1-1 we are thinking ‘go on then, this game is there to be won’. Harry Arter has come off feeling his hamstring, so we had to make a change there, we were concerned about Akin [Famewo] as well – he was feeling his calf. I wanted to get Conor [Washington] on the pitch but we couldn’t do it in the end.
“Then in the 91st minute we’ve got a clear, blatant penalty. The referee and the linesman have both said ‘yeah, he’s held Jayden’s shirt, but not enough to give a penalty’. I’ve watched it back and it is a clear as day penalty. That results in the kick that goes down the other end that they score from.
“For me [on their second goal], it’s the second phase – we should have stopped the cross coming in but when I’ve looked at it back, the cross has come in and there is a massive argument that the player who heads the ball is actually offside, so that’s a big kick at that point of the game. So it’s fine margins, where you are there and you are thinking ‘away from home, don’t lose the game, the game is there to be gone and won, go and win the game’ and then some tight calls go against you.”