Cobblers receive apology over controversial penalty decision in Charlton defeat

Cobblers have received an apology from the head of the Referees’ Association over the decision to award Charlton Athletic a second-half penalty during Tuesday’s game at The Valley.

With the game goalless after 65 minutes, referee Paul Howard penalised Jack Sowerby for apparently fouling Addicks midfielder Jake Forster-Caskey inside the penalty area. Conor Washington stuck away the spot-kick before his late second put the game beyond reach.

However, replays showed that, if anything, Forster-Caskey was the player who initiated contacted and it should have been a free-kick in the other direction.

Cobblers boss Jon Brady was deeply unhappy with the decision afterwards, particularly given the importance of it in the context of the game.

“First of all, we spoke to the head of the Referees’ Association about it and they have apologised for the decision that was made,” revealed Brady on Thursday. “That tells you a lot about what happened.

“But now we have to draw a line under it and move on and look forward to the next game on Saturday.

“Yes, it happened, but do you know what? It’s got to make us even more resilient. Things like that build your resolve and build the attitude of the group. We’re not going to let things like that impact us so we now have to be even stronger.

“You can use it as motivation but it’s happened now and we’ve just got to move on.”

Whilst his side were not at their fluent best in attack, Brady felt they would have been good value for a point at Charlton if not for the penalty decision.

He added: “We probably know we weren’t at our best offensively, at least not compared to previous games. In the previous six games, we were third best for shots on target and the third best for shots conceded and overall we were the most effective team over those six games.

“Of course you want to turn those stats into points and we feel we could have got a point on Tuesday but it’s done and dusted now.

“The positive I would say is that we played against a club in the top nine who are aiming for promotion with Championship-standard players but apart from (Jayden) Stockley’s header early on and a late save by Mitch, we weren’t really troubled.

“I felt we looked strong defensively but we know we can be much better offensively, something we’ve proven over the last few weeks.”