The former Preston North End and Norwich City boss has been under significant pressure since the start of the season but a big win away at Bristol City on Saturday helped steer the Potters a few points away from the drop zone.
Unfortunately, Stoke couldn’t follow up the victory at Ashton Gate with a result against Russell Martin’s side who came into the game with four losses in their last five matches.
Nevertheless, the Scottish coach was happy with his players and the effort shown throughout the match, pinning blame on referee James Bell and questioning certain decisions the official made during the game.
“I don’t think we can have any complaints in terms of the efforts of the players. We got undone by one moment of quality where the ball ends up in the top corner.
“Certainly if you look at the foul that they get for their goal and you look at the foul in the box, if you’re going to compare both in terms of contact.”
Neil also revealed that PGMOL admitted Stoke City should have had at least five penalties this season which were not awarded at the time:
“After every game, an incident report goes in from the referees and an independent panel will look at all the key moments and report back to you whether something should or shouldn’t have been a penalty or a free-kick, big decisions that were right or wrong.
“I think we’ve played now, what, 10 league games and the PGMOL have come back to us – and that will be another one because I’ve watched it back and it’s a definite penalty, no doubt about it – and we’ve had five penalties that have not been given in our favour but should have been penalties based on their analysis looking back.
Refereeing mistakes is a hot topic in the press in England at the moment, particularly since Saturday’s infamous clash between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool where a goal for the latter was wrongly disallowed in the first half.
However, there have also been numerous incidents in the Championship where PGMOL have been forced to apologise to clubs for getting decisions wrong, including at Rotherham United, whose manager, Matt Taylor, has been suspended due to his protests this season.
Perhaps higher standards of refereeing need to be applied across all levels of the English pyramid, not just the one that makes the most money.