Brady slams 'shocking' refereeing decisions after Cobblers' draw against Hartlepool United

Cobblers boss Jon Brady was at the end of his tether with referees when slamming the ‘shocking’ inconsistency of officials after Saturday's 1-1 draw at Hartlepool United.

Josh Umerah was clearly offside when he gave Hartlepool a first-half lead before Euan Murray somehow escaped a red card despite catching Jack Sowerby in the eye with an elbow.

Sam Hoskins rescued a point eight minutes from time but that didn’t appease a visibly frustrated Brady. The Town boss was already left bemused by the decision not to overturn Aaron McGowan’s red card from last weekend.

"The goal they score is offside,” said Brady. “It's just so disappointing from the officials and the linesman.

"I asked him at half-time what he's seen and Col (Colin Calderwood) has gone in there to speak to him now because both Umerah and I think it was (Dan) Kemp are two yards offside. It just shouldn't be a goal.

"We get back into it but we should win that game 1-0. It really is so frustrating to swallow that today because that's now two weeks in a row where we have been hit pretty hard after Aaron’s decision.

"You have the offside goal and then their player has forearm smashed Jack Sowerby in the eye. I've been told that their crowd was laughing about the first goal and then they can't believe their own player isn't sent off. It's shocking.

"It's tough and it feels like the whole world is against us but we fought back and you can see the spirit and the attitude of the boys.”