TAMWORTH boss Andy Peaks thought his side were denied a ‘stonewall’ penalty during his side’s 2-0 defeat at Southend United on Saturday.

The Lambs appealed for a spot-kick after Adam Crowther’s early challenge on Tom McGlinchey inside the area.

And Tamworth boss Peaks did not agree with referee Matthew Russell’s decision to wave play on.

“To be fair I thought we started OK and had a stonewall penalty which wasn’t given,” Peaks told the club’s website.

“I’ll need to look back at it and I’m not going to go mad about it or anything but it looked like a penalty to me.

“I’ve spoken to the lads around it as well and I know Glinchey doesn’t dive.

“He doesn’t need to dive there and that’s a good chance for us to be 1-0 up.

“That’s been and gone and then we didn’t defend very well.”

The Shrimpers scored twice inside the opening 16 minutes to secure all three points.

And Peaks was disappointed with the goals Tamworth conceded.

“We gave two awful goals away which makes it difficult to come back from anywhere,” said Peak.

“We don’t normally give goals away like that and we didn’t have enough quality in the final third either.

“If you don’t play well in the two boxes you’ll lose games of football.

“They’ve scored two goals and missed an easy chance and we haven’t scored any but it’s small margins in football.

“You come to a place like this and we knew it was going to be tough.

“We know they’ll get better and better as the season goes on.”