Accrington Stanley boss John Coleman has revealed what he thinks was the big turning point in his side's loss at Ipswich Town yesterday - a burst football.
Coleman said that defender Michael Nottingham was unfairly booked early on in the game after he brought down Sam Morsy following an incident with the match ball.
He explained: "I think a big turning point in the game, and I've never seen this in football, but Michael Nottingham getting booked because the ball burst. It's ludicrous.
"He's clearly stopped, the air is hissing out of the ball, and he's stopped and taken a step back from the ball. Centre-half's not going to do that (otherwise).
"Their lad's run to the ball and he's been forced to take him down because the referee hasn't stopped the game.
"In hindsight he should have picked the ball up and given it to the ref to show that it's burst, but that's put Michael Nottingham on the back foot for the rest of the game.
"And that's consequently made a big, big impression on the game."
Morsy was involved in another key incident later in the half, when he collided with Stanley scorer Ethan Hamilton, prompting the the latter to hit the floor clutching his face.
Hamilton claimed it was a 'shove stroke punch to the face', with Stanley staff suggesting Morsy should have see red - and chairman Andy Holt tweeting that the Town skipper was a 'sh*t house.'
Coleman said that was for the match officials to analyse again.
"I saw it, everyone's seen it, I've seen it back on the video, but it's not my job to do that, it's their job," he explained. "They'll have to analyse that themselves.
"I don't want to blame the officials. We should have defended better for the first goal, the second goal - even if you don't think it's a foul - Ethan's tried to block the free-kick, it's hit him on the foot and gone to their lad and they've scored, so..
"We've just switched off, and you can't switch off at places like this - good players who move the ball well. They had flashes second half where they moved it well, but they didn't really trouble us, and that's the disappointing thing for us.
"And when you hear 20,000 people, the biggest cheer of the day was when Ethan Hamilton's free kick went past the post - and that will tell you everything you need to know about how far Accrington have come."
He added: "I thought it was a good game and could have gone either way.
“I think the turning point was that 30 seconds where we hit the underside of the bar and looked all the world we were going 2-0 up and 30 seconds later the ball’s in our net.
“A good part of the game we were on top particularly in the first half, Ipswich came on stronger the second half.
“We came to try and win the game and I would have been disappointed with a draw to be honest having took the lead and having chances to go further in front.
“We’re competing in this league and that game could have gone either way and if we keep playing like that, we will win more than we don’t.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here