'One of the worst refereeing displays I have seen': Portsmouth boss blasts match official after late controversy against Crawley

The official was at the centre of controversy as the Blues drew 2-2 at Crawley in the Papa John’s Trophy.

Pompey led 2-1 entering six minutes of time added-on, through goals from Clark Robertson and substitute Dane Scarlett.

However, Allison incensed the Blues by awarding a soft penalty when James Tilley crumpled to the floor.

That was converted by David Bremang to earn the League Two side a draw, before Crawley won 6-5 on penalties for a bonus point.

Cowley was also furious over the build-up to the leveller, with Allison slipping over and impeding his side.

And afterwards he delivered an honest appraisal of the refereeing display.

Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘Just farcical, it summed up the referee’s performance.

‘I love football, I’m really proud of our pyramid, I think it’s the best in the world, but I think the officiating in miles, off, miles off.

‘And I think that was one of the worst displays of refereeing that I have seen.

‘I like him, he’s a really nice man, I don’t like saying this, but I’m just telling you the truth about what I think – and I feel I should say it because I love football and we have to do better.

‘The FA have to do better, the EFL have to do better, this is such a shame, all these people come here and the game is just farcical.

‘The referee falls over in the middle of the pitch, he slips over. Okay these things happen, he gets in the way of our midfield player, can’t [pick up the second ball, then doesn’t blow his whistle and regain his composure and stop the game.

‘He then lets the play carry on and gives the softest of penalties – it’s a completely soft penalty.

‘He has already given them a penalty in the first half which I thought was soft. He has then given them another penalty in injury time and I just thought that incident summed up his performance.

‘I thought he was really bad for both teams. We were all laughing, none of us knew what he was going to give next, we didn’t know which way he was going to go.’

Cowley believes there must be an improvement in refereeing standards moving forwards.

He added: ‘How many millions of people in this country play football and this is professional elite sport, the pinnacle, and this is the best we can do in terms of officiating.

‘We have to look at this, try to get professional referees, hopefully that will encourage a better standard of people and then we have to train them and educate them better so they understand the game better, so they can apply the laws.

‘We’ll have to make the laws easier for them as well because the laws at the moment are difficult for human beings.’