SWINDON Town head coach Jody Morris blasted referee Benjamin Speedie for not giving “three blatant penalties” during Tuesday night’s 1-0 defeat to Stevenage.

Jamie Reid’s 25th-minute strike was the difference on the night and puts Steve Evans’ men on the precipice of automatic promotion into League One.

But in a game where Swindon began to feel more comfortable as time wore on, there were half a dozen penalty shouts from the crowd – four of which had genuine substance – which the man in the middle did not award.

Post-match, Morris felt four spot-kicks could have been justifiably given by Mr Speedie – a decision which would have offered Town the chance to take a deserved point.

He said: “If we have a referee that gets the decisions right, I think we have one penalty in the first half and three in the second half.

“We looked at them back after – I didn’t need to look at the second-half ones back, I felt they were penalties instantly.

“There were two shouts in the first half – one was never a penalty on George, but the other one you could argue it looked like a penalty in real time.

“When I watched it back, it is. But the three in the second half are just three blatant penalties.”

MATCH REPORT: Stevenage move to brink of promotion over luckless Town.

While Swindon were undoubtedly unlucky with regards to potential penalties, the hosts also had Stevenage to thank for not losing by more.

Some woeful finishing let both Saidou Khan and Harrison Minturn off the hook after both lost possession near the edge of their own box.

Morris stated he was proud of his players for the discipline they showed but admitted his concern over playing in the wrong areas at times.

He said: “I thought we were unlucky. There were elements where we can do better on the ball. And I think we gifted a couple of chances to them from some poor mistakes.

“Look at the goal, it’s a poor goal to concede from a defensive aspect. It’s too easy for him to go into the box and get to the by-line.

“There were elements of our game where we’ve maybe chosen the wrong moments to try and play when the ball is quite under control and we’re not set-up perfectly to play.

“There were moments where we could have got the ball down to play further up the pitch instead of helping the ball on.

“But I was proud of the lads in the second half because I thought we more than matched them.”