Ian Holloway said it was Swindon Town’s own fault they were 4-0 losers at Accrington Stanley, despite the refereeing decisions.
After their week off last week, Swindon never really recaptured their form at the Wham Stadium, as Paddy Madden’s opener and Ollie Clarke’s red card had them in a tough spot at the break.
Chasing the game, Madden would eventually have a second and third, with Isaac Heath also finding the net, as Accrington picked Town off on the break.
Holloway did not agree with the decision to dismiss Clarke, but did not feel that was the sole reason his side did not come away from the Wham Stadium with something.
He said: “First off, we were already behind [before the red card], and I knew the challenge that they would give us, because they did not play very well last week and their manager was fuming about it.
“I did warn everybody, but then we are one-down and gave a free kick away on the edge of the box at the start and they were all screaming for it, and it looked like he actually thought about it.
“All of a sudden, the ball went towards Ollie, it went over his head, and he went to put his body in front of the bloke, and he is rolling on the floor holding his face. What are you doing? Not only that, but they have given a free kick and sent my bloke off.
“I have watched it back and they haven’t seen it yet when I went to see them [the officials], which I said I would not do this season.
“After that, we had a spell for 15 or 20 minutes where we looked like we got over it, we kept the ball and moved it, and you wouldn’t have known who had ten men.
“But in the end, we were well beaten, bitterly disappointed with a fella who has hurt his groin, one who hurt his hamstring, and one who got sent off, so it it not a good day in the office.
“That is not all the referee’s fault. It is a very strange scenario, but I don’t blame anyone apart from us, so hopefully we will learn from that.
“It was not his fault we lost 4-0. Technically, I was not happy that we were 1-0 down, but that was not his fault. You need to get on with it.”
Holloway was also very complimentary about Accrington and the way that they prevented Swindon from playing.
He said: “Well done to Accrington. They were at it from the start to the finish, the fella [Madden] scored a hat-trick, and it was a good day for them, but not us.
“We made an awful lot of wrong decisions, but they forced us into some mistakes.
“On the day, we were beaten by the better team. Their press and what they did to try and stop us, you have to give them credit for that.”
