NEWPORT County AFC manager Justin Edinburgh raged at referee Darren Sheldrake as he marked three years in the job with a 1-0 defeat to ten-man Oxford United at the Kassam Stadium.

Edinburgh was certain that the ref, who sent off home striker Tyrone Barnett on 55 minutes, should have pointed to the spot when Chris Zebroski went down in the box in injury time.

But Sheldrake, who booked ten players, waved play on and that meant Michael Collins’ 41st-minute free-kick clinched a much-needed three points for the struggling hosts.

“He’s made a big decision, which is the right one, to send Barnett off but Zebroski is adamant that it was a penalty at the end,” said Edinburgh.

“Anywhere else on the pitch it was a foul but it was one decision that was far too big for him to call.

“There is contact, he’s come from the wrong side and it is a penalty but he’s not been brave enough after the crowd had turned on him.

He added: “We’ve got suspensions now as well for Andy Sandell and Mark Byrne but that’s what we’ve got the squad for.

“Hopefully Ryan Jackson and Lee Minshull should be back for the York game and Andrew Hughes has served his suspension so as one door closes another door opens.”

The result put an end to County’s run of seven games without defeat in League Two and spoiled Edinburgh’s third anniversary as Exiles boss.

“We don’t like losing football matches and to lose to a flukey goal like we did obviously puts a dampener on the day,” he said.

“But it’s not about me, it’s about the team and we’ve lost our unbeaten run so that is very disappointing.

“I thought we had enough possession but we perhaps didn’t do enough with the ball.

“You can say we should have beaten ten men but nine times out of ten that doesn’t happen, especially when a team’s holding on to a lead.

“It’s quite easy to observe and say we should have done more and I am disappointed to lose but I’m not going to criticise my players.

“There was nothing in the game,” he added. “It was a very open game and very competitive and we always looked to be positive.

“It’s our first defeat in seven games so we have to see the positives and it’s not like we were overrun, we just didn’t have enough guile to get back into the game.”