Notts County moved into the top three in League Two last night after a 1-1 draw with Cheltenham, but Kevin Nolan's angry reaction at the final whistle showed he was far from happy.

He refused to shake hands with referee Graham Norwood at the final whistle, incandescent with rage that his team had been denied an early penalty. Long after the event has passed, Nolan was still fuming at the outcome.

Speaking to the Nottingham Post, Nolan said: "I don’t want to talk about referees but I am going to have to after that. He was an absolute shambles and I mean it. Everybody in the stadium knew it was a penalty and even their players ran past me and said ‘how did we get away with that’."

The key moment happened as early as the 16th minute.  Taylor Moore's soft header back to Scott Flinders was intercepted by veteran forward Jon Stead. He rounded the Robins goalkeeper, only to be dragged down in the process. Despite vehement protests from the Magpies bench, no penalty was given.

“If that decision goes for us we could got 1-0 up and they are down to 10 men after a short space of time," said Nolan. "“I am just so disappointed because they are the decisions you have to get right."

Terry Hawkridge opened the scoring for the home side just before the break, but a resolute Cheltenham fought back through Joe Morrell with 20 minutes to go.

Nolan was happy with his side's performance, but to labour on a point he felt it should have been more:

“But I was delighted with the first half, and in the second half they changed system and threw everything at us. I am delighted with the point, but I felt it should have been all three.”

The Verdict

Nolan shouldn't be concentrating as much on the officials as he should on his team's battling point.

Cheltenham are a well-organised side and in Gary Johnson they have a canny manager who knows his way around the basement division.

This might be a point gained, rather than two lost at the end of the season.