COLCHESTER United manager John Ward says the referee got two big decisions wrong during his side’s disappointing 2-1 defeat at ‘crisis club’ Plymouth Argyle.

With the scores locked at 1-1, referee Oliver Langford raced quickly over to harshly dismiss home midfielder Chris Clark after 58 minutes when – with eyes only for the ball – he accidentally caught Ian Henderson in the chest with a high boot.

A sense of injustice appeared to galvanise the Home Park crowd and they were on the referee’s back from that point onwards.

Then, after 74 minutes, the man in black awarded the softest of penalties after Joe Mason went down under minimal contact with Nathan Clarke in the box.

Yala Bolasie converted to give Argyle, who were deducted 10 points for going into administration earlier this week, their win in seven games.

“I’ve seen the penalty decision again and it was extremely poor,” said Ward.

“I also disagree with the sending off – I think it was possibly dangerous play but it wasn’t a sending off.

“It was a yellow card and the lad didn’t know that my player was there.

“For me, that’s the referee not knowing about the game in terms of knowing what players are about.

“I think the penalty decision was the same, because he’s given them both very quickly and not allowed himself to think about either one.”

He added: ““We created enough chances over the 90 minutes to win two games.

“The whole afternoon has been a big downer for us and we contributed to our own downfall by making that penalty count because it should have been out of the way.

“In the end though they were more galvanised by the red card than we were.”

– Full report and reaction Monday’s EADT.