WHILST remaining respectful to the officials, Luke Williams felt that Swindon Town against suffered a second successive refereeing injustice during Saturday’s home loss to Bury.

With the hosts trailing 1-0, Jonathan Obika diverted home Sean Murray’s shot but celebrations at the County Ground were brought to an abrupt end by a late flag, which ruled Town’s goalscorer offside and saw referee Charles Breakspear chalk off the effort.

Williams says that striker Obika was in fact incorrectly adjudged to be offside and felt for his players, who were visibly affected in the minutes following the decision.

In their last league outing against Oxford United, Swindon conceded a penalty when Nathan Thompson appeared to foul the Us’ Liam Sercombe just outside of the area and Williams has been left frustrated by major incidents going against his team.

“The referee explained to us that the linesman believes that Sean Murray’s shot went directly in and therefore, there was no need to flag for offside,” the Swindon head coach told BBC Wiltshire.

“The referee decided that Jon Obika was in an offside position when he touched the ball and of course, he was not. He was very comfortably onside.

“The decision’s very difficult for the referee. I always say this. I respect them and the job they do.

“We conceded a free-kick that was converted into a penalty last week. It’s difficult to accept but it happens.

“This week, Jon Obika scores from comfortably an onside position and the goal is disallowed sometime after the event when we celebrated and got back to restart the game.

“It’s extremely difficult to accept because goals do change games and for sure, maybe it’s the wake-up call for us that we needed and we can go on to compete and try and win the game, not just salvage something.

“Of course, it’s difficult. I know that. They have to make these big decisions but it’s hard when it’s affecting what you do.

“I have seen teams affected at every single level – in the Champions League and playing for their country and so on – so for sure, games are changed by goals and goals have a huge effect on players’ mentality.

“It’s hard to accept but it’s part of football and we shouldn’t say too much about these bad decisions and just try to move on.”