FORMER Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher believes Coventry City should have been awarded a penalty in their weekend fixture against Charlton Athletic.
Sky Blues supporters and players were left incensed in the first half when Amari’i Bell hauled Milan van Ewijk to the ground in the box.
However, referee David Webb waved away Coventry’s appeals with the Sky Blues one-nil down at the time of the incident.
The Sky Blues eventually turned the game around courtesy of a brace from Ellis Simms and Josh Eccles’ strike.
However, the decision not to award Coventry a penalty incensed Sky Blues boss Frank Lampard on the touchline.
And during Gallagher’s weekly ‘Ref Watch’ segment on Sky Sports, the former top-flight official gave his verdict on the challenge.
Gallagher said: “I think penalty and because it’s an upper body challenge it’s a red card as well.
“The referee doesn’t see it. The reason he doesn’t see it is the ball gets kicked from the other penalty area and goes too far up the field.
“He can’t chase the ball. He does what every referee does and goes for the quickest route which is to go direct.
“What you need to do is sacrifice ground so he can see the ball. Once he sees the ball it’s a penalty and red card.”
Despite remaining 10 points clear at the top of the Championship table, Lampard was left bemused by the decision.
And the Sky Blues boss praised his players for not allowing the penalty incident to affect them thereafter.
Lampard said: “You worry when there’s a clear penalty that you don’t get and when they block things on the line, is it going to be one of those days.
“The players didn’t [let the penalty decision affect them]. It probably affected me more on the line because it was as clear as they come.
“But to be fair to the lads they kept calm and got the two goals in the first half and we saw out the second half very well against dangerous opposition.
“Thankfully, the boys and the way the team carried on made it [the penalty decision] not that important.”
