Preston boss Paul Heckingbottom claimed the officials had a “howler” after his side were beaten 2-1 by Lancashire rivals Blackburn at Ewood Park.
After Blackburn had taken the lead through Makhtar Gueye’s header late in the first half, Todd Cantwell added a 78th-minute penalty awarded when Jack Whatmough collided with Dom Hyam as they both tried to head the ball.
Stoppage time then saw Brad Potts pull a goal back and Preston make an unsuccessful appeal for a spot-kick after the midfielder was challenged by Gueye.
Heckingbottom said when asked about the penalty: “You’ve all seen it.
“Josh (Smith, the referee) and Jeremy (Simpson, the fourth official) know they’ve got it wrong, they couldn’t wait to get off the pitch.
“Even all the time Pottsy was down getting treated, they didn’t add any of that on. They know, it’s one of them – they’ve had a howler.
“I can’t tell you how frustrating it is. The six-and-a-half thousand fans who are paying to be here, they expect better, we all expect better.
“I’ve never seen a penalty given for a clash of heads, I see them all the time for elbows in faces (referencing the stoppage-time incident).
“We focus on what we can do, analyse our performance and I’ve spoken (about) where I felt we should have been better in what we needed to do, and when we did do it, we were so much better. But we’ve not decided the game – that’s the big issue, the problem, that’s when it’s really frustrating. It’s tough.”
He added: “The players know…too easy, down the line, they (Blackburn) get a corner from it. They should never. So we look at us. And then after that, obviously someone else has become the star of the show, not our players.
“I could talk about us and what we did, what we got wrong and what we did well. But ultimately, everyone could see our players haven’t got what they deserved, even though they were second best in the first half.”
Heckingbottom, who said he thought a member of his staff had been sent off at the end, confirmed Jordan Storey had come off in the first half due to an ankle issue.
He also revealed that he had not brought on Milutin Osmajic, the forward who earlier in the season had served an eight-match ban for biting Blackburn defender Owen Beck, as the Montenegro international had been too unwell.
The result ended a three-match losing streak for Rovers, who returned to the Championship play-off places, rising from seventh to fifth, ahead of the weekend’s action, while Preston remain 15th.
Boss John Eustace said: “I thought we were excellent. I thought it should have been out of sight first half, we played some fantastic football, really pleased to go in at half-time 1-0 up. The way the lads battled and stuck together in that second half, I thought we really deserved the victory.”
Just prior to kick-off Blackburn announced their third signing of the transfer window in Sierra Leone forward Augustus Kargbo, who came on the pitch to be presented to the crowd having joined from Cesena on a two-and-a-half year deal.
