Opposition view: Simpson bemoans 'huge error' from the officials and believes linesman was 'swayed' by Cobblers fans

Carlisle United manager Paul Simpson bemoaned a ‘huge error’ from the officials and accused the linesman of being ‘swayed’ by a section Cobblers fans after his side had a late goal disallowed during Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat at Sixfields.

Jack Armour broke the deadlock five minutes into the second-half after a goalless and flat first period at Sixfields but within six minutes Cobblers had turned things around thanks to Sam Sherring and Louis Appéré.

Carlisle then applied pressure in search of an equaliser and Tobi Sho-Silva did have the ball in the net following Paul Huntington’s knockdown from a late free-kick, only for the offside flag to go up.

At the time, Cobblers were unhappy themselves that Armour’s earlier goal had been allowed to stand despite Jack Ellis appearing offside in the build-up. Footage subsequently showed that was the correct call though, and Simpson believes it might have had an impact on the linesman’s decision to rule out Sho-Silva’s late leveller.

He said: "Unfortunately, if you have a spell like we did for three or four minutes, against a team who consistently cause you problems, you're not going to win many games.

"But we scored an equaliser that should have stood and unfortunately I think the linesman has been swayed from the first goal when he was abused by the crowd for not giving offside.

"It was actually the correct decision because (Aaron) McGowan plays Jack onside by five yards. It was definitely onside and it was a good goal but the linesman has then made a huge error.

"He told me Paul Huntingdon was offside but he wasn't. He's totally onside and the goal should have stood so there’s frustration over the assistant referee not doing his job properly.

"I spoke to the officials and they were in there talking about it but I’ve seen the footage and I know he’s onside. Officials are marked on key match incidents and I’m afraid that was a key incident because it’s definitely cost us a goal. It was a legitimate goal and in my opinion he has been swayed by the crowd in the far corner who abused him for the first one even though it was the correct decision.

"But we cost ourselves in a five-minute spell where we haven’t got to grips with the game and we didn’t do the things which we were doing for other periods in the game.”