Dagenham & Red 1 Sheffield Wednesday 1: Furious Megson lashes out at officials as Owls are denied by penalty

After Gary Teale had given The Owls a first-half lead, the home side levelled through Danny Green’s contentious spot-kick with 10 minutes remaining.

Chris Sedgwick was adjudged to have handled substitute Darren Currie’s cross and Green made no mistake from 12 yards to snatch a point for Daggers and leave Megson seething.

“The standard of officiating was pathetic,” he said. “I thought it was as bad a performance from a group of officials as I’ve ever seen.

“It’s not a penalty, I don’t know where the lad’s supposed to put his hands, it was a joke.

“Our keeper hasn’t had a shot to save other than trying to keep the penalty out. We should have won that game today.”

Megson was already enraged at the beginning of the second half, as opposing manager John Still made his way from the dressing room to the dug-out deep in conversation with Rushton.

His miserable afternoon was compounded when Wednesday were denied a penalty for an apparent handball by Scott Doe on 82 minutes and the former Bolton Wanderers manager was sent to the stands for one protest too many.

“I’ll be reported, but I’ll be reporting the referee as well, because you do not put your arm round the referee and walk up to the halfway line trying to get him to lean towards you,” said Megson.

“Unless they’ve changed the rules while I’ve not been working the managers aren’t supposed to talk to the referee’s at half time, least of all put their arm round them and walk out for about 40 yards telling him I’m not happy with this, that and the other.

“We told the referee at the time, we know what he’s doing, we can see what he’s doing and it’s against the rules.

“The referee’s performance in the second half was one-eyed at best. It’s pathetic, it’s not on.”

The visitors made the breakthrough 17 minutes in to a scrappy first half, when Michael Morrison’s long throw was flicked on by Rob Jones and headed home by Teale for his fifth goal of the season.

Chances were few and far between in the opening period, with the visitors going closest, again through Teale, who cut in from the left but his low effort was well held by Tony Roberts.

In the second period Daggers were limited to few chances to level, with tame headers from Jon Nurse and Mark Arber the closest they came to finding an equalising goal.

But just as Megson’s side looked set to claim only their third win under his stewardship, the hosts were awarded the fortuitous spot-kick and Green blasted past Richard O’Donnell.

There was still time for Darren Potter to force a spectacular one-handed save from Roberts and for captain Tommy Miller to see his effort deflected wide by Romain Vincelot, but Dagenham held on to deny Wednesday a much-needed victory.

Dagenham & Redbridge: Roberts; Ogogo, Arber, Doe, McCrory; Green, Vincelot, Gain, Scannell (Currie 71); Nurse, Savage (Lancaster 63). Unused substitutes: Lewington, Antwi, Ifil, Lee, Morgan.

Sheffield Wednesday: O’Donnell; Morrison, Batth, Jones, Reynolds (Buxton 67); Sedgwick, Miller (O’Connor 90), O’Brien, Potter, Teale; Madine. Unused substitutes: Nicholls, Heffernan, Johnson, Morrison, Mellor.

Referee: Steve Rushton (Staffordshire).

Man of the match: Rob Jones.