Westley fumes at penalty calls

Graham Westley admits Stevenage's 0-0 draw with Morecambe was tough to take after two controversial penalty decisions against his side.

The Shrimps were awarded a first-half spot-kick which Jack Redshaw blasted against the crossbar. And Stevenage were denied what looked a clear penalty in the 90th minute when substitute Ronnie Deacon looked to have been brought down by Morecambe's Alan Goodall. He said: "They were two strange decisions really. "The referee said he gave Morecambe a penalty because Tom Pett had manhandled their player. Well he must have long arms because we never saw anything and we were all left a bit bemused. "Then we had a clear penalty turned down to cap it all right at the end when Ronnie was brought down. The Morecambe players knew it and their fans knew it as well but for some reason the referee didn't give it. "I'm sure if he had given it we would have scored it and taken all three points and made it 12 from 12 which would have been great. "The fact that the referee gave Morecambe the softest of penalties in the first half made it all the more annoying but we have to accept these things and take the positives from the game. "We played some good stuff and a lot of our younger lads are learning all the time and it was a decent point." Stevenage started the game on the front foot and created several early chances. Darius Charles forced Scott Davies into a superb save with a close-range header that looked set for the bottom right-hand corner of the Morecambe goal. Midfielder David McAllister volleyed just over and Charlie Lee was denied by a fine covering block from Morecambe skipper Mark Hughes. The home side then hit back and were awarded a penalty when Kevin Ellison was bundled over by Charles only for Redshaw to hit the crossbar with resulting spot-kick. Morecambe boss Jim Bentley admitted Redshaw's 16th-minute penalty miss was costly. He said: "If Jack had put the penalty away I'm sure it would have been a very different story. "Stevenage came here with a game plan and were hard to break down. They were well drilled and made it difficult for us and if we had gone a goal up they would have had to change things. "I'm sure a goal would have livened the crowd up as well because it was all a bit flat to be honest. We didn't really do enough or look bright enough to get through their defences and it was a pretty dull 0-0 in the end. "We need to learn to be brighter around the opposition penalty box when games are tight because you need that to win tight games like this. "We are defending well and that is our ninth clean sheet of the season now which is one more than all of last year but there is still more to be done in the final third."