NEWPORT County AFC manager Graham Coughlan was livid at being denied a last-gasp penalty in the 2-1 defeat to Mansfield Town – and accused the officials of showing “arrogance and disrespect” to his players.

The Exiles were edged out in an engrossing encounter at Rodney Parade after conceding the opener to Hiram Boateng after 23 minutes and a counter-attack strike by James Gale after 72.

Aaron Wildig’s header gave them a lifeline with five minutes to go and they should have had the chance to level from the spot in added time.

Thomas Kirk waved away their appeals but it was the manner of the referee’s communication that angered Coughlan.

“I don’t think any player deserves to be spoken to like the way mine were by the officials. We will have to address that and put something in writing but we won’t get much back,” said the manager, who felt James Perch should have been dismissed in the first half.

“We had a stonewall red card and a stonewall penalty, we just have to live with these decisions and that frustration.”

When pressed on what he meant on Mr Kirk’s manner, Coughlan replied: “Arrogance and disrespect. The way the officials conducted themselves was really poor.

“I’ve been in the game a long, long time. I know I’m not the best on the sidelines with them – that’s passion – but I don’t disrespect them and speak to people like that.

South Wales Argus: Newport County manager Graham CoughlanNewport County manager Graham Coughlan (Image: Huw Evans Agency)

“You can’t miss the red card and you can’t miss the penalty. There are no excuses for missing those incidents because they can be defining moments.

“Mansfield acted, they realised what was going on and took the player [Perch] off at half-time, which is always an indication.

“We were on the wrong end of the decisions, we will just have to dust ourselves down, smile and move on, but it’s not just one game, it’s every week and the standard of refereeing needs to improve for the good of the game.”

Coughlan hailed the performance of his team and that of his old club Mansfield, who actually dropped out of the top seven on goal difference.

“I don’t expect my players to be spoken to like that, but I don’t want the officials to overshadow the performance from two really good teams,” he said.

“We weren’t far off but two moments of madness cost us the game – we were very open from our own set pieces, which I didn’t like, and we didn’t deal with a throw in.

“Overall it was a really good game between two really good teams, we’ve come out the wrong end of it and that was our own doing because our defending wasn’t great for the two goals.

“We gave two sloppy goals away but other than that we were really, really good. Our performance was excellent to push a top team.

“It was a really good game and advert for League Two. The table might show there is a bit of distance between them and us but our performance and the way the game went shows that we are not far off.”