Gillingham boss Andy Hessenthaler wasn’t happy with referee Iain Williamson’s performance which added to his side’s woes at Accrington.

Williamson awarded Accrington two penalties and showed Mark Bentley a red card, while another goal was close to being offside.

Hessenthaler immediately reviewed the game on the DVD at the final whistle and confronted Williamson with his damning verdict in the dressing rooms.

"There are three goals that the referee has been involved in and he should have done better," said Hessenthaler.

"Both penalties are not penalties. The first one is harsh, they both go in together and he falls down and the second Josh (Gowling) has got turned but he clearly won the ball. The sixth goal was two yards offside."

Bentley was sent-off for a second bookable offence. The first for the penalty and the second when a free-for-all saw players, management and substitutes lose their cool.

"The melee could have been avoided because it’s a foul on Spiller," added Hessenthaler.

"He goes in and the fella kicks him in the back. There was a foul on our player and had the referee blown his whistle for a foul then it’s the end of the story.

"He lets it carry on, all of a sudden a few tackles are going in and the seven kicks out.

"Mark Bentley sees it, he wasn’t happy and he charges across. Their number seven should have been sent-off and he scored the seventh goal. He shouldn’t have been on the pitch."

Despite Hessenthaler’s misgivings about the referee he conceded his team weren’t at the races either.

"He has had a poor game but we can’t just blame the officials, we weren’t good enough defensively," he said. "The way we defended as a group, there was no way we were going to win that game. We just weren’t good enough.

"I apologise to the fans because they’ve come a long way up here."

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