NEWPORT County AFC manager Justin Edinburgh is hoping for a strong referee and better discipline from his side at Chesterfield on Saturday.

The Exiles boss is still angry at the performance of referee Steve Bratt in last Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to Portsmouth.

Bratt awarded Pompey a contentious penalty before booking County striker Chris Zebroski for diving and sending off Adam Chapman and Darcy Blake.

That is the fifth time that the Walsall official has shown two red cards in a game and Edinburgh revealed that he has made a complaint to the authorities.

“We’ve put in a complaint against the referee. I think his performance was inept,” said the irate County manager.

“He was out of his depth and it was a poor performance. I think he got caught up with it being Portsmouth and it overawed him.

“I’ve seen the penalty from numerous angles and he doesn’t touch their player.

“That player should have been sent off anyway and we had two stonewall penalties in the second half; one for handball and one for a push on Lee Minshull.

“It was 50/50 for the one on Zebroski in the first half.

“The Chapman sending off was correct but the one with Darcy, why hasn’t he sent their player off minutes before?”

Edinburgh confirmed that Chapman has been disciplined for his red card, which will see him miss the next three games through suspension.

Blake is banned for the trip to Chesterfield only and he’ll be replaced by Ismail Yakubu. Striker Danny Crow is struggling with a back strain.

“It was an error from Adam and he knows that he let himself down and we’ve dealt with that matter,” said Edinburgh.

“He’s been fined and he accepts that it was a poor decision. I’ll never know why he did it and it cost us.

“Ismail Yakubu is a ready replacement for Darcy and with Adam being suspended for three games that opens up an opportunity for Max Porter, Ryan Burge, Tom Naylor and David Pipe to stake a claim for that position.

He added: “I think we need to be at our best to get anything out of the game on Saturday.

“We need to take the spirit and the workrate we showed against Portsmouth but we need to show more discipline.

“We’re going to one of the favourites to win the league so we need to be on top of our game but we can take a lot of belief from beating them at home in December. We know we’re capable of beating them.”