Northampton boss Kevin Nolan furious with officials after Cambridge draw

Northampton boss Kevin Nolan was furious with the officials for two key moments of his side’s 1-1 League One draw at Cambridge.

It had looked set to be a successful day for Nolan’s side as they led at the interval thanks to Sam Hoskins’ opener, only to be pegged back when James Brophy scored past goalkeeper Lee Burge following a corner.

The draw moves Northampton seven points clear of the bottom four, but second-bottom Cambridge are 11 points adrift.

“I’m disappointed in the referee. In the first minute of the second half, Ryan Loft’s just elbowed. It’s a disgrace, actually,” said Nolan afterwards.

“I’m really angry because they’ve got the authority to make sure that doesn’t happen. His first action, he’s just elbow up, straight across Mitch (Pinnock).

“It’s a red card and the referee misses it, the fourth (official) misses it and the assistant linesman misses it.

“To make matters worse, there’s two lads on our goalkeeper pulling him and the ball goes in the goal. You’ve got to know that something’s gone wrong as a referee and as a footballer.

“He’s actually got hold of his hand when Burgey’s trying to get away from him, and pulling his shirt and actually trips him up.

“It’s quite worrying because it’s now cost me two points because he’s missed two massive incidents in the game.

“I will be speaking to the higher authorities this week because something needs to be done. That’s a massive two points I’m going to lose because of really poor, poor refereeing decisions.”

After a poor first period, Cambridge boss Neil Harris spoke highly of his side’s response after the break.

“I’ve praised us for some of our halves of football. Our first halves have been very good. We’ve not been behind in halves of football, today we deserved to be. Today we were really poor, first half,” he said.

“It wasn’t what I want us to be, an aggressive Cambridge United, Neil Harris’ team that can play a little bit but also stand up to the fight.

“I’ll end the negative there; the second half was much more like it. It wasn’t pretty at times but it was effective.

“We had a plan and the lads looked like a group that were playing together and it was a really good reaction. On the whole the glass is half full because we’ve come back to get a point.

“It’s two goals and three assists for Brophy now. I want more from him, he just needs confidence.

“It’s a bizarre goal but sometimes you’ve got to put the ball on the money to give it an opportunity for the wind to carry it in the net.”