Red-carded Swindon boss reckons his side should have been 4-0 up at half-time and Peterborough United’s manager showed some sympathy

Wellens, who was shown a red card after confronting referee Leigh Doughty after the game, was frustrated his side didn’t make more of their first-half dominance and angry that his side were denied what he described as a ‘clear penalty’ just before the interval when Posh forward Sammie Szmodics challenged Swindon full-back Paul Caddis from behind..

Jack Payne had fired Swindon in front early in the game. Posh scored three unanswered goals in the second half to seal their comeback win.

Wellens said: “We should have been 4-0 up at half-time. We’ve had three one-on-ones and we should have had a penalty when we were already 1-0 up.

“He (the refereee) has made a vital mistake. Paul was chopped down from behind. It’s a clear penalty and very similar to the one they got for a challenge by Mathieu Baudry. It was a game-changing moment.

“I’m really frustrated. We got ragged in the last 15-20 minutes.

“They upped the tempo and closed our centre-backs down a little quicker and three mistakes have cost us.

“We made inexperienced, naive decisions by making silly fouls and trying to force a goal too early when we regained possession.

“Up to 70-75 minutes they’ve not really carved us open. We’ve had five shots on target, they’ve had five shots on target. We had to take our chances though.

“If people let me down once I’ll probably give them another chance, but if you keep letting me down then you won’t play.”

Posh boss Darren Ferguson has sympathy with his opposite number regarding the penalty appeal.

“We had a penalty decision go against us at Sunderland last week,” Ferguson said. “That was a poor decision and it cost us and we might have got away with one today. I haven’t seen the penalty shout, but I was told by someone on my staff that it should have been given.

“It’s football though. Over 46 games you just hope these decisions even themselves out.”