SWINDON Town manager David Flitcroft felt his side were on the wrong end of some controversial refereeing decisions after falling to a 2-1 defeat at Accrington Stanley in League Two tonight.

Town were forced to play the last 16 minutes a man down after Kellan Gordon was shown a straight red card after a clash with Accrington captain Sean McConville, that coming just three minutes after Marc Richards had given them a way back into the match from the penalty spot.

Flitcroft felt that call was unfair on his side, as was the one that saw Swindon fall behind midway through the first half after Matt Taylor was deemed to have fouled McConville in the box.

That allowed Billy Kee to break the deadlock from the penalty spot before Kayden Jackson added a second Accrington goal on the hour.

After watching a video of the sending-off incident immediately after the match, Flitcroft was left baffled by some of the decisions made by referee Darren Bond.

“Both players have got in a tangle, McConville has got Kellan in a headlock, thrown him on the floor and then leant on him and they have rolled over and we have got a player sent off,” said Flitcroft, who has been nominated for January’s Manager of the Month award.

“It is a key moment. The players felt they had the momentum after scoring the penalty to go 2-1. Mentally you feel good, it gives you that lift. We had the momentum and then it got taken away from us.

“I don’t know who gave the decisions because they are really unacceptable. Matt Taylor is probably one of the most honest players I have worked with. He is telling me that the kid has clipped his own heels and has fallen over when Matt is half a yard away from him.

“Every credit to Accrington, they are a good football team with a top manager but it needs sorting out now.

“What they do for the live football games is put the best refs on. Why don’t they put a League Two ref on and show the world what we have to put up with as League One and League Two managers week in, week out?

“Don’t put a professional one on because we are not dealing with professional ones. See what the Premier League teams think about having that sort of referee.”

Having seen his side ship an agonising equaliser to draw 2-2 at Lincoln City at the weekend, Flitcroft was proud of another battling performance from his side despite them failing to improve their promotion credentials.

“The players have given everything, we are down to 10 men again,” said Flitcroft.

“I didn’t feel the legs were in the performance in the first half and I tried to interject some more legs just after half-time and we took the game to Accrington so I am bitterly disappointed.

“These were really important matches but it doesn’t define where we are going to end up as there is still so much to play for.”