MANAGER Andy Ritchie and striker Luke Beckett joined forces to condemn the refereeing decision which cost Town a point at home to Cheltenham.

But both men also accepted the performance in Saturday’s 3-2 League I defeat fell well below par.

The match was three minutes into stoppage time when Derbyshire whistler Rob Shoebridge ruled out a Beckett header.

Talking exclusively to the Examiner, the official, who also disallowed a first-minute Beckett strike for offside, explained: “There was a nudge by the goalscorer on the player marking him.

“There was also an obstruction by another Huddersfield player as the ball came into the box. Perm one from those two.”

However Ritchie responded: “It was a definite goal, there’s no doubt about it.”

And Beckett said: “I jumped for the ball like I always do, and there’s no way I fouled him.

“As soon as it went in, I was celebrating, and I couldn’t believe it when I realised the goal had been chalked off. I believe that 99 times out of a hundred, the goal would have stood.”

Looking back at the first of three Cheltenham goals in 21 second-half minutes, Beckett added: “I was marking (scorer) Damian Spencer when the ball came into the box.

“We both jumped and I went down under the weight of his challenge, but I wouldn’t say it was a foul, just an honest attempt for the ball.

“When I jumped to head it in, it was exactly the same, and their lad didn’t even go down.”

Spencer’s first goal came in the 62nd minute, 14 after Malvin Kamara had put Town ahead.

Spencer scored again in the 78th, then captain John Finnigan added a third in the 83rd before on-loan defender Richard Keogh struck for Town in the 90th to set up a grandstand finish.

“I thought I’d managed to get us out of a hole, but you have to say it was one we’d dug ourselves into,” added Beckett.

“The boss has given us a dressing down and rightly so. We have to be sharper in our own penalty box as well as the opposition’s.”

Ritchie, whose side are ninth, added: “I don’t want to say too much about the referee other than I wasn’t happy with the way he performed.

“As well as the disallowed goal, he missed two penalties in the first half.

“That said, I’m sick and tired of saying we had 70% of the possession yet failed to win.”