Wigan Athletic chief bemoans both Lincoln City goals in draw - 'The ref's not even looking'

Latics had led early through Paul Mullin, off a big boot from Sam Tickle, but Lincoln scored two goals in the space of three minutes just after the half-hour to gain the ascendency.

James Collins levelled from the penalty spot after referee Alan Young had penalised Christian Saydee for holding Ryley Towler, before the Lincoln striker struck again shortly after from close range.

Credit Latics, they kept going and Callum Wright scored a fine equaliser five minutes into the second half, off a neat cross from Saydee.

That was by no means the end of the drama, with both teams being reduced to 10 men, and then coming agonisingly close to winning it in stoppage-time.

After Saydee had received a straight red for a careless lunge on former Latics midfielder Tom Bayliss, Rob Street followed him down the tunnel for his second bookable offence.

Then, in stoppage-time, Dara Costelloe hit the underside of the Lincoln bar, before Will Aimson had to clear off the Wigan line to deny Tom Hamer in the sixth of seven added minutes.

All of which left Lowe with mixed emotions as he boarded the team coach back home.

"I thought we made a fantastic start, it's a quality goal, Sam gets it moving and Mulls shows his quality,” said the Latics head coach.

"And then the penalty swings it back to them, because up to then we're well on top.

"We've just looked at the penalty back, and the ref's not even looking, so he's not seen it, we don't know who's given it.

"I've just asked an assessor and they said they would go in and ask him...so I don't know where that's come from.

"Yes, there is holding, but he has warned us before about that, and we swapped the markers over.

"The ball wasn't even going to the lad, and the lad threw himself down...I don't know, is that a penalty, is that not a penalty? I don't know, but it's been given and we had to deal with it

"For the second goal, I'm disappointed for two reasons.

"One, because a man ran off the back of our player, so I'm disappointed about that. But from then, it's a push on Christian Saydee, for him to head it down,.

"Chris is going to win the ball, it's only a small push, but he's got two hands on his back.

"After that, the lads were a little bit 'what do we do now?', but we got to grips with it, and we scored a great goal to get back into it.

"It got a bit messy at the end with the red cards, but both teams tried to go for it at the end.

"I thought we were by far the better team when it came to playing football, and I'm overall disappointed we're not going home with three points."