Huddersfield manager Danny Schofield claimed a goal-line technology malfunction cost his team a share of the spoils following a narrow 1-0 Championship defeat to Blackpool.
The Terriers went down to a 38th-minute Theo Corbeanu goal, but were denied an equaliser despite video footage clearly showing that Yuta Nakayama’s close-range, second-half effort had crossed the line.
Referee John Bushby later told Schofield that his watch, which was linked up to the Hawk-Eye system, failed to signal that a goal should have been awarded.
A deflated Schofield said: “I’ve seen the incident a number of times from a number of different angles and it’s a tough one to take because we feel it was a goal that was not awarded.
“When I went to speak to him at the end. I was very emotional and he was pointing at his watch, because he was going off goal-line technology, so it’s difficult to pin the blame on the ref because it was down to the technology and I’m not sure if he can overrule that. It would certainly take a brave man to do so.
“We’ve not had the best start to the season and it would have given us at least another point on the board, so it was a big moment and we feel like we have been let down. We’re fighting for points and we need these things to be right.”
Schofield added that he believes on-loan Aston Villa wing-back Kaine Kesler-Hayden will recover from the blunder that led to Corbeanu’s match-winning strike after he lost the ball on the halfway line.
The Huddersfield boss added: “Football is built on mistakes. Everybody makes them and Kaine’s a strong-minded, confident lad, who will bounce back from that.”
Commenting on the controversial Nakayama incident, Tangerines manager Michael Appleton said: “I’ve not looked back at it and I’ve done that purposely, but I’ve been told it was potentially over the line and that’s not great from their point of view.
“I’ve been in the game a hell of a long time, though, and I know these types of things can happen.
“They have happened against me before and I know the club were on the receiving end of one last season against QPR.”
Appleton went on to hail his team’s defensive efforts after switching to a back three for the trip to West Yorkshire.
He added: “We changed our shape, so that was something new for the players because I thought that it could help us on the transition and turnover and it certainly did for – as much as we were under a bit of pressure in the second half – I never felt uncomfortable if I’m being honest.
“We knew that we would have to defend crosses, but defending them with three centre halves lining up on our six-yard box, we were quite comfortable with that and the threat we then had with Corbeanu, (Ian) Poveda and (Jerry) Yates was really pleasing.”
