PHIL Parkinson said he was “livid” with referee Jeremy Simpson after he had disallowed Josh Magennis’s second-half goal at Stoke.

Wanderers were beaten 2-0 at the Bet365 Stadium but were trailing to Bruno Martins Indi’s early header when their equaliser was scrubbed out.

Magennis headed home Erhun Oztumer’s corner at the far post ahead of Ashley Williams – with keeper Jack Butland left sprawling on the floor.

But Parkinson – whose side had been poor in the opening 45 minutes – said the Lancashire official had denied them a route back into the game.

“We conceded a soft goal and it gave them a lift of energy,” he said.

“We went a bit flat after the goal, I have to say that, but we lifted ourselves terrifically well in the second half and looked a lot brighter on the ball, got Ozzie (Oztumer) in some good areas. I thought he was terrific.

“We controlled the game, looked a lot brighter on the ball and had a perfectly good goal disallowed.

“I am absolutely livid with that decision. I could see at the time that Jack Butland had misjudged the cross and I have seen on the replays there’s absolutely no contact. It’s a perfectly good goal.

“What the referee has seen I really don’t know. That’s a bad call.

“That goal would have got us back into it because at that moment we were in the ascendancy.”

Tom Ince made the game safe for Stoke in the end but Parkinson was convinced the turning point was Magennis’s disallowed goal.

“I’ve looked at the incident two or three times and it’s absolutely incredible,” he said.

“The keeper is stretching for it and Josh comes in at the back stick and heads it in.

“I am looking forward to seeing the ref. I have to wait half an hour from the final whistle but my stop watch is on because I want to know what he saw. He can’t have been sure because there was nothing to see.

“He has obviously guessed because there was nothing for him to see to disallow the goal.

Parkinson made one change to the team, dropping club skipper David Wheater to the bench and bringing ex-Stoke player Marc Wilson in after his one-game suspension.

Asked if he should have made more far-reaching changes, the Wanderers boss added: “It’s always difficult. We thought long and hard about it but we’d played so well at the weekend I thought we’d keep that continuity going into this game.

“They only made one change as well.

“It’s easy to say with hindsight whether you should have made changes or not but I’d discount fatigue because we probably played better in the second half than the first.”