Steve Evans admits he won’t be sleeping easy after watching the performance of referee Samuel Barrott.

The match official awarded Lincoln City a contentious penalty but the biggest thing that concerned Gillingham manager Evans was the way he spoke to the players.

Evans, who was booked by Mr Barrott in the second half of the League 1 match on Friday night, said: “It’s disappointing from my point of view when I hear a match official on a live tv game calling two or three of the Lincoln players by their nicknames.

“I didn’t think he knew their nicknames, he’s in his first season of the Football League, he is running around calling them by their nicknames and I spoke to the fourth official about it. I said it doesn’t look right. That sends me home with a real quandary as I try and sleep.

“I go away with a thing in my head thinking ‘really?’ Nicknames, really? I will get a call or a letter and I will have to say to someone, ‘is that normal?’ If it’s for both sides and you are shouting Demps or Macca (after the Gillingham players), I can see that, but there were surprises on the bench when we are hearing nicknames.

“Why would you run about shouting nicknames. It sticks in my throat that one and I will be speaking to the head of referees about it.

"He made a lot of poor decisions. I am not questioning his honesty but he is a bad referee tonight (Friday)."

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