Chris Hughton was 'angry' with the referee after Birmingham's defeat at Portsmouth, who were lifted by Michael Appleton's half-time talk.
Appleton feels half-time pep talk lifted Portsmouth
Chris Hughton has revealed he was 'angry' with the referee after Birmingham City's 4-1 defeat at Portsmouth, who were lifted by Michael Appleton's half-time teamtalk.
Birmingham's promotion bid suffered a huge dent at Fratton Park on Tuesday evening after Nikola Zigic had given Hughton's side a first-half lead.
David Murphy was then sent off for the visitors after Chris Maguire had equalised before goals from David Norris, Kelvin Etuhu and Marko Futacs secured Pompey's first win in 10 games.
However, Hughton was critical of referee Brendan Malone after insisting that Murphy was wrongly sent off and Pompey's first two goals should not have stood.
Difficult
Hughton said: "I have not been as angry with any other refereeing performance this season.
"I know how difficult their job is to do, but the performance of the referee changed the course of the game. I went and saw him afterwards.
"We should have been given a free-kick in the run-up to their first goal and for their second there were five or six of my players claiming for a handball. Then the sending-off was for something so minimal.
"We left ourselves open for the third and fourth goals, but at 2-1 down with 10 men it is always going to be difficult.
"We have got to pick ourselves up and forget about this game and keep fighting for a play-off spot."
Last-chance saloon
Meanwhile, Portsmouth boss Appleton said: "I said to the lads at half-time, 'what are you waiting for?'.
"We had to go out there and express ourselves, as this is the last-chance saloon and to be fair they went out there in the second half and worked their socks off.
"I could see they were there for the taking. We were running harder for longer and had that energy we lacked in the first half.
"You could see what a difference getting the equaliser made. Straight after the goal every player had their chest out and looked 6ft tall.
"We had a bit of luck with the sending-off, but we have not had any luck here in a long, long time.
"I am pleased for Marko Futacs and Kelvin Etuhu. It is great to have a strong bench like we did."
