Salford City boss Karl Robinson claimed it was “astonishing” that his side did not get a penalty against Carlisle United.

The Ammies manager also admitted his side carried out their defensive duties in “ridiculous” fashion for the Ben Barclay’s set-piece winner for the Blues.

Salford had two appeals for a spot-kick in the first half, when Dan Adu-Adjei challenged Haji Mnoga, and when a later shot struck Aaron Hayden, leading to unsuccessful handball claims.

United reached half-time at 0-0 before substitute Barclay headed home late on to earn Mike Williamson’s side a 1-0 win.

Robinson, speaking in a post-match club interview, said his side were “outstanding in the first 45 minutes. Some of our play was the most fluent I’ve seen – but we didn’t take our chances,” he added.

“What happened then is I think not only the players but the fans [start thinking], ‘where is that goal going to come from?’, because of some of our build-up and some of the opportunities we created.

“Then the glaring penalty decision that isn’t given is astonishing. We’ll be having a conversation with the referee to ask him what his thoughts were on that.

“I know what his answer will be – there will be an apology once again.

“In the second half we lost a lot of the fluidity, we looked a lot slower in a lot of the things we did.

“For me, that is something we have to be better at – when we don’t score in that first half, find that level of intensity to keep us on the front foot.

“We looked disconnected. It almost looked like [because] we hadn’t scored playing well, let’s start hoofing it long. Well, we got those opportunities from playing, and playing long when they were playing high, but playing long when they were deep…the game became a bit of a basketball match that we lost control of.

“Then a ridiculous set play that we got completely wrong. Those things stay internal.”

Robinson’s side, who dropped a place to 13th, had much the better of the first half but Carlisle applied increasing pressure as the second 45 minutes went on.

“The energy went out of the game and I felt we lost our fluidity,” added Robinson.

“You win with class – and you lose with class as well. You look at yourself first and accept responsibility for the things you’ve done wrong, then you become better for the consequences of that.”

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