Town boss Paul Lambert jokingly suggested reporters used his quotes from the Sunderland match after the Blues were once again on the wrong end of poor refereeing as they were beaten 3-2 by Portsmouth in the FA Cup at Portman Road.

Sean Raggett’s winning goal was clearly offside - and came following a free-kick which should have been awarded the other way - while the Blues were denied a stonewall penalty when ex-Pompey striker Oli Hawkins was pulled back in the area.

Those decisions, made by referee Andy Haines and his assistants, came after Lincoln were handed a very harsh penalty which saw them to a 1-0 victory over the Blues at Sincil Bank last month and the 2-1 loss at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday in which Andre Dozzell was very harshly red-carded and the Black Cats were awarded a penalty.

A number of ex-referees - including Mike Jones, the national group director of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) - have subsequently said both decisions against the Wearsiders were incorrect.

“I’m just tempted to say ‘Move on, take my last speech’ because it’s incredible,” Lambert said afterwards.

“I’m smiling because I can’t believe it. There must be a voodoo doll somewhere or somebody’s done something.

“Dear oh dear, what do you say about the offside? He’s offside when he puts it in and there’s nobody there.

“And the penalty, the penalty! Honestly, Gavin Hastings would have been proud of that tackle.”

Asked about the linesman’s role in the goal, he added: “The things he said when I spoke to him! Listen, he made the call and I’m not bothered. It’s incredible, it really is. There we go.”

Pressed further on what the linesman said, he added: “It doesn’t really matter. It’s just bizarre how he’s given it. I just can’t believe what’s happened in the last few weeks, that was incredible.

“I’m fed up phoning Mike Jones but I might just give him another call just to say hello, I’m never off the phone to him.

“He’ll probably see my number flash up tomorrow, even just to talk to him, just to get it off my chest.”

Lambert, who didn’t see Haji Mnoga’s challenge on Mark McGuinness which has widely been viewed as a red card offence, added: “You’ve seen the games of late, every time I’ve spoken to Mike Jones he has agreed with me about the decisions. At Lincoln, the referee’s agreed, the observer agreed, Mike Jones agreed.

“Mike Jones agreed about the red card, he agreed about the penalty, I’m pretty sure if he looks at that he’ll say that’s incredible.”

Lambert says he’s at the stage of being beyond anger and finding the situation laughable.

“Aye, and I’ve got myself into bother anyway,” he said, referring to the FA charge he is facing for comments made at Lincoln.

“I just can’t believe what’s happening here. How do you get them wrong, that’s what I don’t understand, how you can get them wrong?”

The football cliché is that these things even out over time, although the Blues would need an awful lot of decisions to go their way if matters are to be levelled up.

“You hope so,” Lambert continued. “I just don’t know how they can get things wrong. They’re looking right across the line, the referee’s there, he sees who touches it in.

“And then the penalty, the linesman was here looking across the line. It’s incredible.”

Reflecting on the game overall, Lambert was pleased with the way his team came back from being 2-0 down after 15 minutes.

“Listen, dear oh dear, we were really good,” he said. “The football we’re playing, I love watching it. Yes, a lot of decisions are going against us at the minute but football-wise, we’re OK.

“A lot of guys hadn’t played a lot of minutes, we changed a helluva a lot of guys, everyone except the two centre-backs from the other night.

“The guys are at the training ground carrying little things and we can’t take the risk. But all credit to the guys because they came in and did really well.

“They kept the same team [that won 3-1 at Lincoln on Tuesday], we changed it because of injuries and suspensions, things like that. Guys that have not played a lot of minutes [came in], but the way we played in the second half - excellent.”

Lambert was pleased with the impact his subs made with James Norwood scoring his first goal since February and Gwion Edwards also catching the eye.

“I thought we were in the ascendancy at that time,” he said. “We were really good in the second half and we could have gone on to win it.

“Portsmouth are a good side, good luck to them in the second round, but it was incredible.”

Lambert is happy to have Norwood back after a hamstring injury, although the striker was struggling with a problem having played longer than had been anticipated due to extra-time.

“He tired, I think the hamstring was taking cramp, his other one [not the one which was previously injured]. That just shows you that he needs a wee run of games. But that will do him the world of good.”

Clarifying that it wasn’t Norwood’s injured hamstring which was the issue today, Lambert added: “I think that’s what they’re saying in there, so hopefully that’s the case. I was looking at getting him off at one point but he said he was alright. If he says he’s alright, you’ve got to trust him.”

The Blues boss says the striker probably won’t be ready for a start against Shrewsbury at Portman Road in a fortnight, the Blues’ next League One game.

“He’s been out for eight weeks or so, nine weeks, so it’s a big ask,” he continued. “He’s done wee bits of training and little bits but today he was lively and he scored a good goal.”

Lambert also had praise for young midfielder Brett McGavin, who was making only his fifth senior start.

“He started slowly because he was finding his feet, then he grew into it, did really, really well for us,” he said.

“He’s a really good passer of the ball, Brett, and as the game grew I thought he played very good.

“It took him about 10 or 15 minutes to get a grip of it but as the game grew he got stronger and stronger, so I’m really happy, he’s a young kid and I’m happy with him.”

At the end it was clear the players and staff were frustrated at not progressing to the second round, even if a cup run might not be ideal in what’s already going to be a very busy season.

Town's exit and that of Charlton, who lost 1-0 at home to Plymouth, means the League One game between the Blues and the Addicks, which was postponed due to international calls last month and was previously pencilled in for Tuesday 22nd December, will now be played on Saturday 28th November (KO 3pm).

“I never get any games where I don’t want to win,” Lambert insisted. “We want to win but what can I do when these sort of things happen. It’s there for everybody to see. I really don’t know.”

He added: “You want to progress as far as you can, every game you want to progress. We’re out but we’ve a game on Tuesday, then we’ve a free week and then we play Shrewsbury on the following Saturday.”

The Blues are at Crawley in the Papa John’s Trophy on Tuesday with Lambert confirming that it will be a very young side facing the Red Devils.

“We have to, we play Saturday-Tuesday for a long time,” he said. “The younger ones, it will be good to see them play, see if they can replicate the moves that we look for and hopefully the coaches of the U23s and U18s are teaching them the same as the first team.”

Photo: TWTD

midlandblue54 added 14:49 - Nov 8 When's the media going to start asking lambert some tough questions or are afraid of losing there press pass for Portman road ?
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Icantbelieveyousaidt added 15:15 - Nov 8 Perhaps midlandblue54, as we are second in the league they do not wish to make themselves look and sound stupid. You of course do that on such a regular basis that you think we are all of the same ilk.
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BettyBlue added 16:12 - Nov 8 the only reason we are second is due to the fixture computer. we have played 8 sides fromthe bottom half of the league one table. if we can't beat the top ten teams that is where we end up this season. is that difficult to understand?
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Icantbelieveyousaidt added 16:36 - Nov 8 We have only played one of the bottom five BB; you will have to get up earlier in the morning young man to convince most of us. Oh and by the way - lose 16 games to the top 8, win the other 30 and get 90 points and promotion! In these tough times do try and lighten up and be less predictable and boring.
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Razor added 10:24 - Nov 9 Should not the goalie have got the first? Always play your strongest team-----can you imagine the master (BOBBY R) mucking around wit his team every game---NO!! If we go out tomorrow then Lambert should exit immediately, end of.
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