Salford boss Karl Robinson declared himself “absolutely fuming” at the performance of the officials in his side’s 2-1 home defeat to Grimsby.
Luca Barrington scored twice for the visitors, opening the scoring inside a minute and striking again just before the break after Cole Stockton had levelled in the 15th minute.
Salford twice struck a post in the second half through Ossama Ashley and Junior Luamba, while they had a penalty claim turned down by referee Jacob Miles when Kelly N’Mai went to ground after a strong tackle.
“I would love to know how it could be that bad of a performance, it’s impossible,” said a raging Robinson.
“The penalty is an absolute disgrace. I can say our defending and finishing was a disgrace at times today as well, but that was only part of the story today.
“Some of the tackles as well, I’m surprised that some of my players aren’t in a worse place. I’d say the better team lost. At the end of the day they won, but I am absolutely fuming on external influences on the result.
“It sounds worse when you lose, but at the end of the day that was not an acceptable performance from the officials today.
“Our defending for the two goals was appalling, though, and I’ve gone absolutely crazy at the players. We were the better team today and I don’t think anybody could argue that with the chances we created.”
David Artell was delighted with Grimsby start to the game.
“When you score after a minute, it’s obviously good that you’re off to a flyer, but I thought we also grafted well and that’s pleasing,” said Artell.
“I thought we were a threat all over the first half and I thought we probably could and should have had more, with a couple of balls flashing across the front of goal that we couldn’t quite get a touch on.
“I thought we were full value for the lead at half-time. Obviously the second half panned out a bit different when they put a big man up front, but I thought we stood up well to their directness.
“I thought we had 11 men today who ultimately won us the game, but we had a bit of quality in the first half when we could play and we made a few better decisions which helped us win the game.”
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