'He played basketball': Ruaidhri Higgins says Derry City denied 'stone wall' penalty

The City boss claimed Bohs defender Krystian Nowak 'played basketball for a couple of seconds' inside the visitors' six yard box when Jamie McGonigle headed Brandon Kavanagh's cross goalwards late in the match.

Match referee Damien McGraith was unmoved by the protests by the Derry players and the entirety of the animated home support while Ruaidhri Higgins received a yellow card for his reaction to the non-decision.

"A big shout, an absolute stone wall penalty - he played basketball for a couple of seconds," said Higgins. "I watched it back three or four times from different angles, the referee's in a brilliant position. He's not only handled it once, he's had another go at it.

"There's one in the first half as well and I'm not sure if it's Cian (Kavanagh) or Mickey (Duffy) running through but there's a handball there. That's forgivable to a certain extent but that one, given the moment in the game, we were in the ascendancy.

"I don't know what else to say. It's a stonewall penalty and I've been booked for appealing a penalty. Football is an emotional game. I haven't used any bad language so I don't know what else to say.

"It's just gone into injury time. We had momentum at the time and were getting the ball into their box regularly and had them pinned in. If you score a penalty that late on I don't think there's any coming back from it but he hasn't given it and it's cost us."

Higgins' opposite number Declan Devine has been on the wrong end of some dubious refereeing decisions himself this season and he had sympathy for his Derry City successor.

"We haven't carried any luck in a while and looking back it's probably a penalty but at the same time we've been punished in other games this year where we haven’t had that bit of luck.

"I think it was a scrappy game. I don’t think that’s the best we’ve been or the best Derry have been.”