Colchester United boss Joe Dunne was furious with the decision to award Sheffield United a match-winning penalty during this afternoon’s 3-2 home defeat to Sheffield United in the FA Cup.

The U’s seemed to be heading towards a deserved replay, thanks to second-half goals from Macauley Bonne and Luke Garbutt, which had cancelled out early goals by Harry Maguire and a Tom Eastman own goal.

But Magnus Okuongahe was then penalised for what looked like a very harsh handball, from Maguire’s header. The decision was made by the assistant referee, and Chris Porter stepped up to dispatch the 81st minute spot kick.

Dunne blasted: “I’ve just seen the incident back again. He (Okuonghae) is one yard away, so how has he got a reaction time to make a decision to deliberately block that ball, going goal-bound?

“It is impossible to get away from it.

“It is an appalling decision and it has cost us. It’s as simple as that!

“There’s no question that it is a poor decision.

“I have just watched my team get booed after they scored their second goal.

“We gave them (the fans) nothing to cheer about in the first half, and I told the players that at half-time.

“We deserved everything we got, the stick was warranted.

“But we then went out and were magnificient in the second half.

“We got it back, but to have that taken away by a really poor decision like that is gut-wrenching.”