MATT Bloomfield was left bewildered over the penalty that was awarded against his Colchester United and ultimately led to them losing 1-0 at Sutton United, this afternoon.

Ossama Ashley was controversially penalised for dangerous play in the area after being deemed to have raised a high boot towards Rob Milsom, who tucked away the resultant spot-kick.

Ashley was booked for the incident and was then cautioned again in the second half, leading to him being dismissed and Colchester playing most of the second half with only ten men.

The incident also occurred with Alan Judge lying injured in the U's six-yard box, with the experienced midfielder subsequently carried off with what looked like a serious knee injury.

U's boss Bloomfield said: "I don't know what the penalty was given for.

"We've also got Alan (Judge) who's got a big injury, on his knee, injured in the middle of the six-yard box.

"They don't stop the play; they let the play go on and he's lying injured in the middle of the incident as it happens for the penalty as well.

"I can't understand how week after week, we're talking about incidents in the middle of our six-yard box that no-one sees.

"AFC Wimbledon away, Mansfield away, Sutton away, they're adding up and I don't understand how we have four officials officiating the game and no-one looks in the middle of the six-yard box.

"I'm a big believer in process and affecting the things you can affect and controlling the controllables.

"I believe that whole heartedly.

"We keep coming away from away games that are decided not by the way we perform because I'm really proud of the boys again and the way they performed.

"We were on the ascendency first half and created really good opportunities.

"We were comfortable in the game, even in the second half with the discipline that the boys showed with ten men, the control that we had in our game and everything we'd worked on, during the week.

"But we're coming away from another away game talking about a referee decision in our six-yard box, for the third time.

"Not only has he given a soft penalty against us in the first half; he's compounded that with a booking that then results in us going down to ten men.

"The second one was a booking, that's not a problem.

"The problem is that he gets a penalty given against him that isn't a penalty and Judgey is lying injured in the middle of the six-yard box with a bad injury to his knee but the game's not stopped and that should have been a foul on him, by the way."