Page gobsmacked by defeat

Rob Page was 'gobsmacked' by some of the refereeing decisions as his Port Vale side lost 2-1 at Barnsley.

The Vale manager felt the ball clearly crossed the byline before goalkeeper Chris Neal turned Milan Lalkovic's cross into his own net in first-half injury time. And he also wanted a second-half penalty for a Ben Pearson challenge on Tom Pope, which left the striker with a possible fractured jaw. On-loan Manchester United midfielder Pearson struck his first career goal in the first minute of the second half to double the Tykes' lead before Colin Daniels' volley halved the deficit in the 66th minute. Page said: "We've had a look at the video again and it seems like the ball's a foot over the line (before the first goal). "Ironically, second half we get an opportunity like that and the same linesman gives it, so he can see that one but he couldn't see the one first half. "Then Mark Marshall gets a free-kick against him for raising his foot without even touching the lad and Tom Pope has taken a whack to the head inside the 18-yard box and might have to go for an x-ray on his jaw, yet nothing's given. I'm absolutely gobsmacked, I just don't get it. "I think if you come to places like this and you gift teams two goals, it's always going to be difficult. I'm disappointed with the two goals. We got in at half time at 1-0 and said we'd got to start fast, get an early goal and within 30 seconds we're two down. Outside of that, we gave everything second half. They were polar opposites the second half and the first half." Barnsley boss Danny Wilson admitted his side were lucky to claim the three points. Wilson said he did not see whether the ball crossed the line before Neal's own goal but felt his team should have had a first-half penalty for a possible handball by Vale captain Carl Dickinson. "I thought the game itself was little bit of a slow-burner to start with," Wilson said. "I think we got a bit of fortunate for the first goal, which we've not had for a little while. "Second half we started it quite well, got that goal with a slight deflection and then it was backs to the wall after that and we had to defend four lives and I thought we did that. "I don't know if the ball went out or not (prior to the first goal), I couldn't tell you. There was people in front of me. I didn't even see it. I'll watch it again later, it could well have been out. "We did feel we should have had a penalty. We can talk all day about fouls that have not been given; it's the referee you've got to ask in that respect. "I'll take a bit of luck any time; I don't think we've had our fair share in recent weeks. Maybe from our point of view it was due. "The performance was arguably secondary today, the points were the most important."