Oldham Athletic have received a refereeing apology for a potentially game-changing decision that went against them in last week's defeat to Halifax.

Latics were trailing 2-1 when Mike Fondop was caught by the elbow of Tylor Golden inside the box but were denied a penalty and a one-man advantage as match official Steve Copeland failed to award a penalty or punish the foul in any way.

Latics this week received an acknowledgement from the referee's assessor that they should have been awarded a penalty and Halifax should have been reduced to 10 men for the incident.

And while manager David Unsworth was appreciative of their honesty, he hopes the admission will lead to the standard of refereeing improving in the National League.

"We've received notification from the assessor that we should have had a penalty and (Halifax) should have had a man sent off, so while we thank them for their honest feedback it doesn't help the cause when there are blatant decisions going against you," said the Latics boss.

"If it was one or two now and again I would say they would iron themselves out over a season, but not sending the man off against Halifax and not getting the penalty, and then there was the foul on Hogan against Chesterfield (that wasn't given and Chesterfield scored from the subsequent corner), it's becoming a bit of a habit, and not a good habit.

"I was trying to tell the fourth official on Saturday, that decision is a major contribution to the outcome of the game, where we're all judged.

"Results are where we're judged.

"You've got to be honest and I think the Referees' Association have held their hands up that he (Copeland) didn't make the right decisions. We all make mistakes, we're only human.

"But what you need for big games, and in our league Chesterfield v Oldham and Oldham v Halifax are big games with big followings and you need a strong referee. I don't think we had that in either game.

"It's like a player or a manager, you've got to get the big things right and a lot of these referees are getting the big decisions wrong and that's why it's great coming out at the end of it and acknowledging the mistake, but they've got to get more decisions right than they get wrong and that's the frustrating thing to me. And how are they learning? Who is telling them the Hogan foul isn't a foul? The linesman's there, the referee's there, the fourth official's there, we're all watching the game and the people who are making the decisions are all making the wrong calls, so there's something fundamentally wrong in terms of their learning if all of them all the time get the big decisions wrong.

"Coaches, managers and players can't all be wrong."

And he feels there should be greater dialogue between managers and coaching staff and referees to help raise officiating standards.

"It's a big issue at the moment and all these new directives don't help the referees because there's too much inconsistency, and I think the Referees' Association have got to have a long hard look at themselves and start working with managers, with coaches, with people who actually know the game inside out and actually learn from them.

"We all want it to be improved.

"If the Referees' Association in the north west asked if I'd go and help them I'd do it in a shot, I'd help them no problem, because we don't want to keep talking about it. I don't know any other sport where the referees are under that much scrutiny to get more right than they do wrong. It doesn't happen in rugby or cricket. You name a sport and I don't think the level of officiating is as poor as it is in football right now."