Rochdale boss on controversial decisions in defeat to Carlisle United

The home manager said his team should have had a penalty and Blues goalscorer John-Kymani Gordon could easily have been sent off.

Bentley also felt the decision to disallow a late Ian Henderson equaliser was “borderline”.

“When you’re after that little bit of luck, in the position we’re in…I have looked back over the penalty, 100 per cent I think it’s a penalty, on Devante Rodney,” said Bentley after Dale’s 1-0 defeat.

“And the young lad up front for them [Gordon], his booking…that could have been a red easily.

READ MORE: Blues fans' incredible Jagermeister round before Rochdale game!

“It’s either something or nothing – if it’s an elbow it’s an elbow, you can’t have a soft elbow.”

Gordon was booked by ref Ross Joyce for the first-half incident with Rochdale defender Jim McNulty.

Blues boss Paul Simpson, though, felt Gordon’s caution was “harsh” and “unlucky”, saying: “He isn’t the sort of player who is malicious enough to throw an elbow, he’s just put his arm up to try and get his balance and protect himself, and he’s caught the defender in the face, or wherever it was.”

Rochdale were also left to rue the late decision by the officials to rule out Henderson’s 88th-minute goal for offside.

Rochdale manager Jim Bentley (Image: PA)

Bentley said he had looked at footage after the game and felt it was a very close call.

“I’m not going to be one that flies in the referee’s dressing room and says we’ve had the privilege of looking at it back,” he said in a club interview.

“It is tight, and being perfectly honest it’s borderline.

“With clever movement like Hendo’s got…we’ve had a couple of goals of his recently called offside, and when you get back in, [you find that] it’s actually onside.

“If the linesman’s getting it right he’s got a hell of a vision on him.

“But the big thing from me is…usually when a goal like that’s scored…their hands are on their head, they’re on their knees. We’ve just equalised late on.

“Why do we go down the whole process of, ‘Let’s run over to the linesman to double-check…;

“We’ve made a couple of critical errors in the last couple of games that’s cost us. Here we’ve had no luck.”

Rochdale remain bottom of League Two, two points adrift of the safety line.

It was a third straight defeat for Bentley’s side and he added: “We battled. I’m pleased with some aspects, disappointed in others. Our second half performance was more what we wanted.

“[Overall] it was a little bit too reactive for me – we should be flat out from minute one.

“There wasn’t much in the game, it was scrappy, battly, first and second balls, backing things up.

“That’s how they got the goal – a punt over the top and we haven’t defended that situation.

“In the second half we had a go and we deserved something from the game.”