Portsmouth boss slams referee Bobby Madley as he lets controversial late Morecambe goal stand

The Blues boss was left seething at referee Bobby Madley failing to see infringements, as Jonah Ayunga’s stoppage-time goal was allowed to stand in the 1-1 draw at the Mazuma Stadium.

The draw officially condemns Pompey to another season in League One, with the play-offs now out of reach.

That, of course, has been on the cards, but it was still hugely disappointing for Cowley to see the goal given and deny his side a third win on the spin.

And the 43-year-old had no doubt who was to blame for that.

Cowley said: ‘The referee has made a really poor decisions.

‘We’re incredibly frustrated. We’ve had the opportunity to watch it back - there’s three fouls in one. How he doesn’t see them I don’t know, to be honest, I don’t know.

‘I’ve been in to see him and spoke to him for 10 to 15 minutes.

‘Ultimately he can’t change his decision and we’ve had to accept that and suck up the disappointment.

‘It’s hard to take when you see an injustice like that.

‘To take 800 fans the length of the country and to then to get two points taken off us at the death through an obvious foul, I don’t know how he doesn’t see it.

‘Gavin Bazunu was excellent and he doesn’t deserve it individually – and we don’t deserve it as a collective.

‘Their keeper coach said it was a foul and I was shaking my hands with the referee when their number two keeper was laughing and saying “how have you missed that?”.

‘Anyone knows football knows it’s a foul, but it’s been missed and we have to accept it.’

After already airing his frustrations about Pompey’s fixture programme, Cowley again felt his players looked tired as Morecambe came on strong at the end of the game.

He didn’t think his players were wanting for effort, though, as they were denied three points at the death.

Cowley added: ‘We haven’t got the value for the hard work.

‘We’re asked by the EFL to play three games in six days and four games in nine days, which is an incredible number in a short space of time.

‘We take six points this week with two wins and we wanted to turn a good week into a great week.

‘We were absolutely dead on our feet at the end and fought all the way to the final whistle.’