'Silly things' - Salford City boss Karl Robinson annoyed at referee in Chesterfield draw

The Ammies were reduced to 10-men when Curtis Tilt received his second yellow card just seconds after James Berry had put the Spireites in front. But that didn’t stop them from pinching a draw late on when Kelly N’Mai curled in.

“I am really happy with the performance,” Robinson told BBC Radio Manchester. “I think we showed bite, I think we showed some sense of control away at a team who got promoted in the way that they did last season and with the players that they have in their squad. I think this will be seen as a very good point."

But in another interview, Robinson expressed his frustration at referee Watkins.

“I can talk about multiple decisions that he didn’t give today that he gave to the opposition,” he said.

“He let silly little things go that led to that melee in the middle of the pitch.

“Then we go to the goal. Woody (Ben Woodburn) played a pass and clearly he gets pushed from behind and it hits their guy on the hand. Clearly, for everyone to see. And then Tilty has a go at the assistant referee and then gets booked. And then all Tilty did was step across his man. Will Grigg’s experience has got him the second booking. Then, really weirdly when we scored the goal, Chey Dunkley did exactly the same thing and not even a free-kick was given.”

On his team’s performance, he added: “I felt that we denied a team that scored five goals last week to very limited chances in the first half.

“We have to be better in possession. I felt that we had the best three opportunities in the first half, without actually dominating or having any period of sustained pressure in their final third.

“After the first three or four minutes of the second half, we changed the shape a little bit and we seemed to get a little bit closer to them.

“We looked a little bit more aggressive in our press. We kept two up top, even down to 10 men, with a bit of a different shape and probably deserved a draw.”