Lincoln City boss Michael Skubala admitted that Reading should have had a penalty in Saturday's 2-0 defeat at the LNER Stadium.

A goal in each half secured a deserved win for the Imps, with Louie Holzman sent off on a frustrating afternoon for the Royals.

Noel Hunt was left baffled by the refereeing decisions, especially one in the first half which denied a penalty on Sam Smith.

Speaking to the club media after the match, Lincoln boss Skubala admitted he felt it was a penalty too.

"I thought it was a pen. I haven’t seen it back but, in the moment, I thought it was a penalty, so I think we got away with one there. A few times this season I thought we should have had stuff that we haven’t got so over the course of the season it does even itself out. I thought that one was a pen."

Holzman's red card in the first half, for a last man challenge, was a deemed the right call by both managers, but Skubala was left relieved that the referee did not look to 'even the game up.'

"I thought it was a sending off," the former Leeds United coach added. "All I didn’t want him to do was try and even the game up. I thought they came out with a strategy to try and get us rattled, get Housey [Ben House] a yellow and try to even the game up. It was about managing not getting into those duels and contests and keeping the ball moving."

Talking more broadly on the win, Skubala commented: "I would call it a professional job. We wanted to start fast, aggressive and take the game too them- I think we did that really well. Our press was great, we went 1-0 up, and they couldn’t cope with us when we got after them a little bit.

"The sending off changed the game because when you’re against 10 men it might sound easy, but you have to do a really professional job and make sure you’re good with the ball and wait for the right moment. I thought in the second half we did that really well.

Reading midfielder Harvey Knibbs was left just as frustrated.

"In our eyes, and everyone’s, it’s a stonewall penalty. Their players are immediately telling us it’s definite, I think the centre-half actually apologised to Sam [Smith] after the tackle. A similar challenge on our behalf and he’s sent Louie off so the game has changed in two moments.

"Three games in a row and they’ve got worse each week. I couldn’t believe how the one on me wasn’t one last week and this one there is no debate. This week and last week, both sets of players have admitted that it’s a penalty so I don’t see how the ref and linesman have come to that decision but it’s cost us today."