SWINDON Town head coach Luke Williams felt a poor decision in awarding Bury a first-half penalty cost his side at Gigg Lane on Saturday.

James Vaughan stepped up and converted from 12 yards to grab all three points for the hosts and condemn Swindon to the bottom four.

However, Williams was left perplexed by the decision made by referee Mark Brown and whilst conceding his side have been far from good enough this season, calls like that have cost his team dearly.

“(It was awarded for) contact inside the box, which is astonishing,” he said.

“In every penalty box in the whole world, every single football pitch from Sunday morning to the Champions League, everyone is contacting each other in the box.

“It is not a grapple. It’s contact and then release.

“Why we have been punished with a penalty is beyond me – it’s staggering.

“If the rules are that nobody is allowed to make contact in the box, then fine, but it is the same for everyone.

“We know we haven’t been good enough this season but we can certainly do without the referee deciding to award a penalty because two of the opposition bash into each other or somebody made some physical contact.”

In a game which lacked much of an attacking threat from either side, Williams believed his team had the chance to return to Wiltshire with at least a point with the chances created in the dying minutes.

However, when Charlie Colkett fired wide inside the box deep into time added on, Town’s chance of salvaging anything from the game went with it.

“It wasn’t good enough because we didn’t win,” added Williams.

“Lawrence Vigouroux had one save to make in 90 minutes of football. The referee decides to be a Bury fan for the day– other than that, we had nothing too clear until later on in the game.

“I think Charlie Colkett would expect to score from his position inside the box with the ball at his feet.

“When James Brophy breaks into the box and he has got the chance to square the ball to three targets, he should square it at one of them, clean, and they should put it in the back of the net.

“I don’t think it’s too much to ask and is unrealistic for the players with their qualities and their talent.

“If you don’t do that, you don’t deserve to win.”