Key refereeing decisions were 'heartbreaking' for Brady and Cobblers

Jon Brady described it as ‘heartbreaking’ to have a perfectly good equaliser ruled out for offside during Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Salford City.

Town trailed at the break after a poor first-half performance but they dominated in the second and would have come away with at least a point had any of three big decisions gone in their favour.

Elliot Watt’s poor challenge on Josh Eppiah went unpunished before Eppiah himself saw a goal ruled out for offside but television replays suggest he was marginally on. A strong shout for a penalty in stoppage-time also fell on deaf ears.

"We have Josh’s goal which I feel should have been a goal because he looks onside,” said Brady. “Then we have the penalty decision where Fox’s shot is going towards goal and the ball hits an arm. It’s a legitimate handball and the Sky cameras back that up.

"The nasty tackle on Josh isn’t even awarded as a free-kick. The people on Sky thought it was a red card. The disappointing thing from us is giving away two cheap goals and that’s our fault and we shouldn’t do that.

"But then we work really hard to get back in the game, we get a foothold and then we start to dominate and we push and push and when you are down in a game and you are pushing hard and you score a good goal like that and it’s disallowed, it’s heartbreaking.”