Karl Robinson wants Salford’s owners to complain about refereeing standards

Furious Salford boss Karl Robinson wants his club’s owners to speak up about officials in League Two after his side let slip a lead in a frustrating 1-1 draw away to Fleetwood.

Dutch forward Kelly N’Mai’s 26th-minute strike put the visitors on course for their first league win over Fleetwood.

But midfielder Matty Virtue headed an 82nd-minute equaliser to secure a share of the spoils.

Robinson, whose side are owned by a consortium that includes former England internationals David Beckham and Gary Neville, criticised referee Seb Stockbridge for some of the decisions which led to Fleetwood’s leveller.

“Their goal came from some of the most inconsistent refereeing decisions I have ever seen,” said Robinson.

“If I say it (criticise the referee), I get in trouble. People will say, ‘so will the club’, but at some stage our owners have got to do something about the inconsistency.

“We had the biggest point-swing in refereeing decisions go against us last season – and already this year (it’s going against us).

“We’re angry. I feel for my players, but they can’t do anymore than they’ve done tonight.

“I’m really proud of them and proud of the fans.

“I felt like tonight we didn’t lose this game, but if we’d have won it would have been the biggest statement about us.

“We handled everything but how the referee handled this game. I’m devastated, we’re devastated.”

Robinson was proud of his side’s efforts on a very windy night on the coast.

“I thought we were the better side,” Robinson added.

“We missed a couple of chances, we’ve got to learn to put teams away when we’re on top.

“We created more opportunities than the opposition against a good Fleetwood team with a strikeforce which is very, very strong and well-coached in some of the hardest conditions I’ve ever been involved in.

“People won’t truly understand how difficult tonight was and how dry the pitch was. The wind as well, I thought our players showed tremendously bravery with how we tried to play.”

Fleetwood manager Peter Wild praised his players’ application.

“I think it was a fair result in tough conditions which threatened to spoil the football match,” said Wild.

“It was nip-and-tuck for the first 20 minutes, but we made one mistake for the goal and the lad finished well for them.

“Just coming up to half-time I don’t think we were great. When you’ve been punched in the face we were feeling sorry for ourselves a little bit, which allowed them to get right on top of us and maybe score again and been out of sight.

“But what this group do really well is stay in football matches and they galvanise.

“My big message at half-time was ‘stop feeling sorry for yourselves’. We’ve matched them for effort and opportunities – and they’ll offer more in the second half.

“We were more aggressive and front-footed in the second half, and took the game to them.

“We’ve hit the bar and had good chances. A point is a fair result.”