Wrexham suffered heartbreak on Saturday afternoon and James McClean is seemingly biting his tongue about Charlton Athletic’s late equaliser.
Phil Parkinson took his Wrexham side down to South London on Saturday afternoon, facing his old club Charlton Athletic.
This was a much-anticipated game with Charlton pushing a ‘Welcome to London’ campaign ahead of Wrexham’s trip to The Valley.
Birmingham City lost at Charlton earlier this season but Wrexham were not about to follow suit.
An own goal put Wrexham ahead but even when Charlton equalised, Wrexham went again and scored through Andy Cannon.
A 2-1 win was within touching distance but controversy struck late on as Wrexham concede a last-gasp penalty.
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James McClean on Wrexham draw
The ball bounced up and hit Max Cleworth on the arm and the referee – a replacement for the original referee after an injury – pointed to the spot.
Matt Godden stepped up to score, handing Charlton a share of the spoils in a 2-2 draw.
This was a bitter disappointment for Wrexham, who have now been backed for success by Charlton’s Josh Edwards.
Wrexham are furious with the penalty decision and captain James McClean has now taken to Instagram to share his thoughts.
McClean is clearly frustrated and seemingly held back as he went a message to Wrexham fans.
‘All I’ll say on that ending is we should be taking 3 points back to Wrexham instead of one’, alongside the zipper-mouth emoji.
McClean did though praise the travelling Wrexham fans as ‘incredible’, no doubt feeling that they deserved more for their journey.
Phil Parkinson rages at referee
Wrexham were so close to three points and it’s not as if Cleworth’s handball was like Luis Suarez’s red card for Uruguay at the 2010 World Cup.
The ball struck Cleworth with his hands by his side so Wrexham can certainly feel aggrieved.
Boss Phil Parkinson has now shared his anger whilst speaking to BBC Sport, suggesting that all rules of football show that it just isn’t a penatly.
Parkinson added that the substitute referee clearly wasn’t up to the job and showed his inexperience by booking the Wrexham boss at full time.
“It’s never a penalty in a million years, Max has got his arm down by his side,” said Parkinson.
“If that happens 50 times, the ref might give it once. We’re frustrated because we had the ball in the corner, we should have kept it in the corner, we know that, the lads got out. We’ve restricted a team to long diagonal balls against us, we’ve controlled the game and we’ve played some unbelievable football. I feel for the lads.
“The substitution referee comes on. Is he up to the job? Clearly not, because there’s only one big decision that he had to get right in the game, and he’s got it wrong. I just want to know how he can give that as a penalty. All of the rules I know about handball clearly state that wouldn’t be a penalty. His arm is in a natural position, he actually tried to pull it away. Very, very harsh.
“I tried (to speak to the referee), he showed me a yellow. I was perfectly civil to him at the time, but that’s another showing of his inexperience,” he added.
Wrexham will now look to move on from this disappointment with an FA Cup clash against Harrogate Town to come next weekend.