Gillingham were beaten by a stunning goal on Tuesday night but their manager questioned whether the match-winner should have been on the pitch.
Gareth Ainsworth watched with frustration as his team missed a flurry of chances to put the game to bed and allowed Cheltenham Town a way back into the League Two match.
Report: Cheltenham 2 Gillingham 1
Ronan Hale’s first-half effort was cancelled out by Isaac Hutchinson’s 63rd-minute goal before substitute Mo Faal volleyed in a winner for Cheltenham on 95 minutes.
Ainsworth said: “Unfortunately, [it was] a worldy from a player who maybe shouldn’t be on the pitch at the end of the game.
“I’m not saying whether he should be sent off or not, but there were three major incidents, fouls, concerning him.
“I feel fully aggrieved that he was still on the pitch but it’s a referee’s decision. You’ve got to go with it.”
Asked again about the winning moment, he added: “That’s the decision for the referees. I can’t say one way or the other.
“I know that my players have been punished for not as bad [incidents this season] as that. That’s football, isn’t it?
“If there was something on this, if it was a play-off game or a relegation battle, I’d be absolutely going mental at the referee. But they have a tough job.”
Referee Harrison Blair was taking charge of only his third Football League match.
The Gills have had a flurry of inexperienced referees in recent weeks – something Ainsworth has previously mentioned.
“We seem to be having a lot of refs who are very inexperienced,” he said. “That’s factual. We’re getting a lot of inexperience coming through in League Two.
“I think the Premier League is taking the cream and leaving a shortage down below. That’s how it feels sometimes.
“We’re getting a lot of inexperience, but they’ve got to learn somewhere, and they’ll get better for it, but we take the hit.
“I’m glad there was not too much on the game, but some of the Gills fans are going to be home at 2 am after seeing a defeat in a game that we should have won. I apologise for that. But thank you for your support. You were brilliant.”
One incident with Faal led to a facial injury for defender Andy Smith, who had to be replaced.
Ainsworth said: “He’s broken his nose, I think, or badly damaged his nose.
“How many times do you see that leg flying in the air that’s kicking someone in the head? It’s so dangerous.
“I was one who used to go for overhead kicks [as a player] so I can understand the guy doing it. But the referee’s surely got to… I don’t… Listen, we’ll leave it to the refs. I don’t want to get in trouble.
“I’ll just talk about how good the performance was. Andy took a knock to the face, and that’s nasty. We’re going to have to look at that, and somehow we’ve lost that game.
“You’ve got to give credit to the boy with the way he finished the winning goal. It’s a great volley. But we feel a bit of grief on that one. He was on a yellow card, and he smashed Glenn [Morris].”
The Gills had been desperate for a second goal after Hale’s opener. Sam Vokes had the ball in the net, only to be flagged for offside, a decision that further frustrated boss Ainsworth.
He said: “Please have a look at that replay because he’s not offside. Just going that way at the moment. Hopefully, it’ll turn around and get the other way.”
On his side missing their chances, he added: “We should have been out of sight but somehow we’ve let them back in.”
