Reading manager Paul Ince launched a withering attack on referee Darren Bond following his side's 1-0 defeat at the hands of Cardiff City.
The Bluebirds downed the Royals to make it back-to-back wins, thanks to a last-gasp strike from Romaine Sawyers, but it might have been different if Mark McGuinness saw red in the first half.
The City centre-half lunged into a reckless-looking challenge, with his studs in the air, on Amadou Mbengue deep into the first half. Mbengue met the ball fractionally before McGuinness and the Cardiff man clattered into his Royals counterpart.
He escaped with a yellow, but on second look he appears to be a lucky boy. Ince certainly thinks so - and believes Bond's decision not to send him off had a huge bearing on the result.
"I think a big decision didn't go our way in the first half - you've got to be honest and say so," he told Sky Sports.
"Referees will always make mistakes but they are paid to get the big ones right and he bottled it and got it completely wrong. He's got to make a decision, but it's a blatant red card and it's a poor decision.
"But that doesn't take away from the fact we were poor. It was our third game in six days and it showed. But the red card is poor refereeing. We've had this referee a couple of times and he's been poor.
"It was a great chance for us to nick a point, but we didn't put in enough effort and desire. But it comes back to the failure to give a red card, it's a diabolical decision. Well done to Cardiff and we move on."
In the press room afterwards, the Royals boss doubled down on his criticism, believing Bond "bottled" the call.
"It’s the referee decision - the sending off. It’s a blatant red card," he said.
"Like any red card, it changes the game. The referee has bottled it. This is why sometimes you need VAR. If it’s in the Premier League, there is no two ways about it. Maybe it was too early for the referee.
"It’s the same one we had against QPR at home when Shane should have had a penalty - hopefully I don’t get him again. I’ll get a phone call from Kevin Friend on Monday saying he got it wrong - but that’s no good to us."
Ince was in an irate mood after the final whistle, as you would expect following his team's sub-standard display. And he did not hold back during his assessment of both his players and the game itself.
"Cardiff played the same, hitting the two centre-forwards, but we never tried to get it down and play. All-in-all, you think it’s a 0-0 and then you give a stupid foul away," Ince said.
"Sometimes you need to look at yourselves. We look at ourselves as coaches, you need to look as individuals and see some of the things you were doing today. You look at that game and think what goes through their heads. It’s mainly the 10 minutes before that. [Callum] Robinson couldn’t walk, and we were still defending on the edge of our box. Get yourself up and try to win the game.
"Normally I come out here and back my players, but today there is no way you could back them, they were poor from the first minute to the 90th.
"Cardiff made it difficult but it’s another game where we looked tired and sometimes when you’re tired you need to be at home for the last game of three. It was a poor game of football, so hopefully Sky won’t put us on anymore. I’m disappointed in the performance, I can take losing, but I’ve said to the ones in there [dressing room] that they need to perform better than that. Especially the ones knocking on my door to come in, they have to look at themselves.
"As a team we were very very poor. At no point did we look like threatening or creating anything. It shows when we haven’t got people like Thomas [Ince], we can’t create. They dumbfound you why they make decisions. It was very poor today."
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