Danny Johnson, Nantwich Town manager (pic by Simon J Newbury)

By James Briscoe
Nantwich Town boss Danny Johnson hit out at the officials after watching his side slip to a 3-1 defeat away at Ilkeston

The Dabbers looked to have been denied a clear penalty claim when striker Ben Deegan was brought down in the second half.

And a third goal which killed off  Nantwich seems to show Nantwich debutant Osebi Abadaki fouled seconds before Gary Ricketts scored for the hosts.

Johnson said: “I’m not one for criticizing referees but I’m not sure last night’s was totally fair to our team.

“The big decisions definitely didn’t go our way and the minor ones certainly didn’t go our way.

“I can only remember the referee giving us one free-kick, I thought he was really poor. It’s not something you expect to see at this level of football.”

The Dabbers went one behind in the 10th minute from a deflected goal, but Johnson’s men continued to play the better football for large parts of the game.

“I thought we played really well, we played some really good football, their first goal was a deflected effort that’s gone in after 10 minutes which set us on the back foot,” he said.

“The lads restarted and for the rest of the first half they got on top and I think we had Ilkeston on the ropes for long parts of the second half.

“We conceded a really sloppy goal from our point of view, a real bad defensive mix-up by not doing the right things but then we settled down again and we were pushing and probing, got a goal, and had a good claim for a penalty, and some opportunities that on another day will go our way.

“We got sucker-punched at the end when they made it three when we were pressing and it should have been a foul leading up to the goal which tells you everything about how the game went.

“You can see it on video it’s a foul and you can see the referee’s right on top of that situation as he was with the penalty claim.”

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