Opposition view: Boss Morris baffled by amount stoppage-time and says Crewe 'merited' victory against Cobblers

Crewe Alexandra manager Alex Morris was mystified by the amount of stoppage-time played by referee David Webb after Northampton scored with the very last act of the game during Saturday’s controversial 2-2 draw at Gresty Road.

Both managers were critical of the officials at full-time on Saturday with Cobblers boss Jon Brady hitting out at the ‘outrageous decision’ to allow Courtney Baker-Richardson’s first of two goals before the break to stand.

Sam Hoskins halved the deficit on the cusp of half-time and then salvaged a point at the death. Six minutes of added time were awarded but the clock read 96.53 when his corner deceived everyone and found the net, although Morris claimed it was even later.

"The goal was scored seven minutes and 30 seconds into stoppage-time when only six minutes was added on,” said the Crewe manager. “The ref said the extra time was for the booking of Dan Agyei and their goalkeeper, which took 90 seconds apparently.

"That’s just not the case, it didn’t take that long, but we will have to leave that to the referee and his rationale. Decisions like that change the whole week for people and now we have 4,000 people absolutely gutted and dejected rather than jubilant with another win.

"The lads have invested a lot of energy into their performance and staff have invested a lot of time into it and they have had it taken away from them through a decision that’s our of our control.”

Regardless, Morris praised his side’s performance and was adamant they deserved to win, adding: “We were competitive and we had energy and there was plenty of effort and all that’s been taken away from us is two points – you can’t take away the positives from the performance.

"Yes, the opposition had more of the ball and more of the territory in the second-half but we are playing one of the best teams in the league and we are not the finished article, far from it. We are not at the stage where we can control games yet.

“We were up against better players and a better team than the last two games. We merited winning that game of football due to how we defended after taking the lead. The players earned the right to have three points – I’m not having for one minute that we didn’t deserve to win. The decision of a referee has taken it away from us.”