Friday 20 March 2015 22:57, UK
Head coach Steve McClaren hit out at referee Keith Stroud after defeat at Wolves left Derby's title hopes in the balance.
The Rams are winless in six games after a 2-0 defeat at Molineux following Nouha Dicko's strike and Lee Grant's own goal.
The keeper punched into his own net in the second half with Derby still five points off the Sky Bet Championship top two.
And McClaren was fuming when Stroud disallowed Tom Ince's goal and awarded Derby free-kick instead at 0-0.
McClaren also felt the official should have sent off Danny Batth after he brought down Darren Bent before Ince swept in the free ball.
He said: "We have set a standard at this club in terms how we treat officials and we have been very humble but I'm finding it very difficult to keep that up.
"I have not seen that in my years in football, something so black and white and so blatant. It is very difficult to keep our cool.
"On this occasion all I can say is he was totally wrong and once he looks at the video he will realise that. It's unbelievable the player didn't get a yellow card, a red card or the goal didn't stand. It's one which changed the game."
Derby have played a game more than their promotion rivals and face an anxious wait over the weekend to see if they lose ground.
They never recovered from Grant's gaffe and McClaren admitted they may have to win their final seven games to clinch automatic promotion.
He said: "Absolutely, we're capable of doing that. We have got ourselves into the top three or four all the time and in the last few weeks we have fallen below that.
"I accept we make mistakes, we have made errors which have cost us and individuals know that, there's no criticism."
Wolves are only out of the play-off places on goal difference before Saturday's fixtures and have lost just once in their last eight games.
Head coach Kenny Jackett said: "With seven games left we're still in with a really good shout and what we have to do is recognise what we have got.
"With 15 games to go I thought we'd need two points a game, that's eight gone and we've got 17 so we're there or there abouts, we'll need 75 points plus (to make the play-offs)."
"Looking at the game against Derby earlier in the season, where we lost 5-0, to be only two points behind them is a good achievement. At that junction there looked a chasm between the clubs."
On Ince's disallowed goal Jackett added: "I was surprised the goal was disallowed, I thought he would give a goal and we'd be 1-0 down. I can't speak for Derby but they'll be very disappointed."
