CITY boss Bryan Gunn said he was disappointed by some key decisions made by referee Mick Russell as the Canaries lost 1-0 at home to Brian Laws' Sheffield Wednesday.
After Jermaine Johnson's 48th-minute deflected strike gave the Owls the lead, Mr Russell disallowed what many in the ground felt was a legitimate late equaliser by on-loan Reading striker David Mooney for a foul on Wednesday 'keeper Lee Grant.
With a couple of strong Canary penalty shouts also waved away during the game, all in all it was a frustrating afternoon for Gunn and the Norwich faithful.
On the disallowed Mooney effort Gunn told First News: "It wasn't a very good view from the technical area I must admit. I've seen a replay on the ProZone that we have and I was disappointed that the decision that was made was the final decision. It's disappointing that it's not been given - I know there's a lot of bodies around the goalkeeper, defenders around him. I think the reaction of the players, their players tells the story, they don't really claim for a foul and the goalkeeper didn't claim for a foul.
"I'm also disappointed with a better view of a possible penalty kick on David Mooney, when he had his legs taken away from him in the penalty box. We've got 25,000 fans here but there's only one man who can make that decision and he hasn't given it our way."
Despite the moments of controversy Gunn admitted his Canary side had been below-par in comparison to the performance levels reached in recent games: "Certainly not in the first half. We knew Sheffield Wednesday would come here and perform with a bit of freedom.
"If you look at their points tally they're fairly safe in the build-up to the game and the fact that they've had a couple of injuries but they could play with people like Varney, Jeffers, Tudgay, Johnson are very attack-minded players in a forward area it was going to be quite open in the first half but we came in 0-0 at half-time, we had some hances they had some chances so we hoped we could come in and regroup, focus on what we needed to do for the second half.
"But to lose a goal so early into the second half was criminal. When we've spoken to players about the strengths of Jermaine Johnson, he will cut in on right foot so force him down the line which didn't happen. We're disappointed with that but we had 42 minutes to try and recover and felt we had a couple of good opportunities to do that and where we should have been able to recover - that wasn't to be."
