Furious Barrow manager Pete Wild criticised the award of Crawley’s penalty in his side’s 1-1 draw at the Broadfield Stadium as an “outrageous, ludicrous decision”.

Striker Emile Acquah headed Barrow into the lead shortly before the interval but Danilo Orsi’s 20th goal of the season from the spot midway through the second half dragged Crawley level and kept them in the play-off places along with their opponents.

Wild severely criticised referee Sam Purkiss for “taking 20 seconds” to make the penalty decision for a handball by Rory Feeley, and he answered in the affirmative when asked if he thought the linesman had made the decision because the referee had not seen it.

Said Wild: “We were outstanding, especially with what we’ve gone through (losing three games in a row).

“It was a classic Barrow performance, solid at the back and threatening on the counter-attack.

“That was very pleasing but then it’s all ruined by an outrageous, ludicrous decision that was made without any thought.

“It’s ruined it for us after scoring a great goal.”

Wild was mystified why referee Purkiss took the time he did in deciding to give a penalty, and added: “It took 20 seconds to make that decision, why was that?

“There were two more crosses going into the box in that time before the decision was made.”

Crawley’s point came after two successive defeats and boss Scott Lindsey felt his men did everything they could to try and force victory.

He said: “We did everything possible to try and win a game of football.

“We were up against a strong, defensive unit in Barrow and if we perform like that in our last two games we’ll be fine.”

Seventh-placed Crawley hold a one-point advantage over Walsall and Lindsey believes his side are the “calmest” team in the play-off places owing to them being written off as “relegation fodder” at the start of the season.

He said: “We are the calmest because we are not supposed to be there. It is still in our hands and we are not worrying about other teams.”

Lindsey admitted he was “angry” about the booking of midfielder Jay Williams as he claimed Purkiss “booked the wrong player” and Williams will now miss the last two games.

The former Swindon boss said: “I’m angry about that as Jay has done so well for me.

“Jeremy Kelly made the foul but Jay won the tackle and yet he was booked. It’s the wrong decision, it’s not fair and should be looked at.”