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• Pete Wild fumes at ‘outrageous’ penalty as Barrow held by Crawley

  Furious Barrow manager Pete Wild criticised the award of Crawley’s penalty in his side’s 1-1 draw at the Broadfield Stadium as an “outrageous, ludicrous decision”.

  Striker Emile Acquah headed Barrow into the lead shortly before the interval but Danilo Orsi’s 20th goal of the season from the spot midway through the second half dragged Crawley level and kept them in the play-off places along with their opponents.

  Wild severely criticised referee Sam Purkiss for “taking 20 seconds” to make the penalty decision for a handball by Rory Feeley, and he answered in the affirmative when asked if he thought the linesman had made the decision because the referee had not seen it.

  Said Wild: “We were outstanding, especially with what we’ve gone through (losing three games in a row).

  “It was a classic Barrow performance, solid at the back and threatening on the counter-attack.

  “That was very pleasing but then it’s all ruined by an outrageous, ludicrous decision that was made without any thought.

  “It’s ruined it for us after scoring a great goal.”

  Wild was mystified why referee Purkiss took the time he did in deciding to give a penalty, and added: “It took 20 seconds to make that decision, why was that?

  “There were two more crosses going into the box in that time before the decision was made.”

  Crawley’s point came after two successive defeats and boss Scott Lindsey felt his men did everything they could to try and force victory.

  He said: “We did everything possible to try and win a game of football.

  “We were up against a strong, defensive unit in Barrow and if we perform like that in our last two games we’ll be fine.”

  Seventh-placed Crawley hold a one-point advantage over Walsall and Lindsey believes his side are the “calmest” team in the play-off places owing to them being written off as “relegation fodder” at the start of the season.

  He said: “We are the calmest because we are not supposed to be there. It is still in our hands and we are not worrying about other teams.”

  Lindsey admitted he was “angry” about the booking of midfielder Jay Williams as he claimed Purkiss “booked the wrong player” and Williams will now miss the last two games.

  The former Swindon boss said: “I’m angry about that as Jay has done so well for me.

  “Jeremy Kelly made the foul but Jay won the tackle and yet he was booked. It’s the wrong decision, it’s not fair and should be looked at.”

• Still work to do for Colchester – Danny Cowley

  Danny Cowley insists Colchester still have work to do to secure their League Two status despite their vital 2-0 home win over Grimsby.

  Colchester took a fifth-minute lead through Tom Hopper, who ran onto Arthur Read’s excellent pass and coolly lifted the ball over goalkeeper Jake Eastwood and in.

  And John Akinde sealed the Us’ victory in the 79th minute when he lifted a fine effort from just inside the area into the far corner, from Noah Chilvers’ pass.

  The victory relegated Forest Green, who did not even play on Tuesday night, but Colchester boss Cowley said: “We’ve still got work to do but I think we can be really pleased with ourselves tonight.

  “I thought we had a really good first half an hour and went 1-0 up, could have gone 2-0 up.

  “But we didn’t go 2-0 up at that time and probably in the middle part of the game, there was a bit of a storm.

  “We lost Alistair Smith which was a big loss and came out and tried to keep the same system that just didn’t quite work, with the personnel.

  “So then they were quite gung-ho and loading six on the attacking line so we went to a back five and I think once we did that on maybe 50 minutes, we got a foothold back in the game and looked a real threat on the counter-attack.

  “We had numerous chances and it took a Glenn Hoddle-esque chip from John Akinde to win us the game.”

  Grimsby, who are not yet mathematically safe, pushed hard for an equaliser after falling behind early on and Donovan Wilson and Harry Clifton went close to levelling.

  But despite Colchester defender Tom Dallison being dismissed for a foul on Justin Obikwu in stoppage time, Colchester claimed victory.

  Grimsby boss David Artell said: “If I give anyone the hairdryer treatment, it’s for lack of effort and there wasn’t lack of effort tonight.

  “That’s the only time I’ll get irate and it’s not my job to shout at people – it’s my job to help people get better.

  “Do you ever get a teacher shouting at a 10-year-old? It’s his job to help them.

  “For me, it’s about standards, it’s about making sure with that final pass and that was the difference tonight.

  “It’s about having those standards from where we are to maybe that next level.

  “They’ve picked a team to try to outmuscle us and win those set-pieces and we’ve stood up to all that, which is credit to the players, but it’s that difference between the ball going behind someone and not through on goal and actually someone scoring the goal.”

• Nigel Clough hails ‘unbelievable achievement’ as Mansfield clinch promotion

  Mansfield manager Nigel Clough was relieved to see his side clinch promotion with two games to play after a 2-1 home victory over Accrington.

  The Stags had wobbled recently with one point from three games before roaring back, with this third straight win securing League One football for the first time since 2002.

  Clough said: “I feel hugely relieved to get over the line – I didn’t want it to go to Saturday or possibly the week after going to Barrow.

  “I think the MK Dons result on Saturday gave us a huge incentive to get it done tonight.

  “But the season is not over yet. It is in terms of achieving our aim but we still have two games to play.

  “So we will do everything we can to beat Gillingham on Saturday and then get something at Barrow the week after.

  “It is a special night and an unbelievable achievement for Mansfield to be playing in the league above for the first time in 22 years.

  “This is for the thousands that were here tonight, some people have been supporting the club for 50-60 years – it’s for them.

  “They have seen some quite low times here over the years, so it’s lovely they can enjoy tonight.

  “Some supporters have said to me it’s the best season they have ever seen at Mansfield, not just the promotion but the football – and that is pleasing.”

  George Maris gave Stags the perfect start as, from a short corner, he launched the ball towards the near post where it found the net off Stanley’s Tommy Leigh.

  Stanley goalkeeper Radek Vitek then made good saves to deny Hiram Boateng while Maris failed to turn a low cross into an empty net at full stretch.

  But Stephen Quinn made it 2-0 on 63 minutes at the second attempt after Vitek saved his first effort.

  Leigh did grab a fine volleyed consolation after 85 minutes before a pitch invasion and wild scenes.

  Accrington boss John Doolan hoped watching the Stags’ celebrations would inspire his young side.

  He said: “It’s Mansfield’s night and it’s fantastic for them.

  “They have been trying for a number of years to get themselves up and promoted so well done to Nigel and Andy (Garner) and all the playing staff.

  “That’s what you want to aspire to and that’s where you want to get.

  “We’ve done it before so there’s no stopping this group of young lads that’s coming through and this is what they want. We will move on and hopefully that can be us in 12 months.

  “We came here to try to spoil the party and I think the lads did their best and showed that.

  “We wanted to stay in the game so we had a game plan to play in blocks of 15 or 20 minutes.

  “That early goal kills you a little bit but the lads showed resilience and character to get in at half-time to sort ourselves out. They never stopped and we pushed them right to the end.”