Jon Brady felt the referee allowed Wigan Athletic to get away with the 'dark arts' during League One defeat

Cobblers boss Jon Brady felt referee Ross Joyce allowed Wigan Athletic to get away with the ‘dark arts’ on too many occasions during Saturday’s spicy League One game at the DW Stadium.

The Town manager was unhappy with a number of incidents throughout the contest, including Joyce’s decision to book Jack Sowerby for supposedly kicking the ball away in the first half and then the call to award Wigan the corner which led to their equaliser 19 minutes from full-time.

The officials were also inconsistent in their decision-making as Wigan recovered from Sam Hoskins’ sublime free-kick to win 2-1. Players were booked for kicking the ball away and yet cynical challenges that broke up counter-attacks on the halfway line went unpunished.

"Their equaliser wasn't a corner in the first place,” said Brady. “They've kicked it over the bar and the ref has given a corner.

"And then (Patrick) Brough loses his marker from the corner but only because he gets a push in the back. They worked really well on the dark arts today and they got away with a lot.

"The referee didn't deal with any of those at key moments, which is very disappointing. Jack Sowerby passed the ball straight to their player to where the foul was, he's given it back to them, and the referee books him.”

Brady was booked himself, and even assistant boss Colin Calderwood picked up a rare caution. The former was shown a yellow card for complaining about a decision against Akin Odimayo during the second half. There were 10 bookings in total.

"(Callum) McManaman rugby tackles AK from behind but AK is the one who gets booked,” Brady added. “It's just unfathomable. What were they seeing in those moments?”

McManaman’s winning goal meant the 800 plus away supporters went home disappointed, but Brady hopes they were encouraged by what they saw from his side during a largely excellent performance.

"I'm really appreciative of the support we had,” he continued. “I'm disappointed that we couldn't give them at least something to go home with but hopefully the ones that have seen that live can see a lot of real positives from the group.

"We had big numbers in our last home game and I just want the fans to really get behind the boys on Tuesday and really support the boys again and help us on to victory.”