Nathan Jones accuses linesman of staring at him 'like I'd volleyed his cat' after disallowed goal costs Charlton

Charlton manager Nathan Jones accused an assistant referee of looking at him “like I’d volleyed his cat” following a goalless Championship draw with QPR at The Valley on Wednesday, his second public broadside against officials in the space of four days.

Tyreece Campbell’s first-half strike was disallowed when assistant referee Bhupinder Gill flagged the Jamaica forward offside, a decision Jones insisted was wrong and ultimately decisive in a London derby that ended 0-0.

“They were giving offsides willy-nilly, we had one offside which wasn’t,” Jones told reporters after the game. “The goal is a great goal from a great counter-attack, it’s onside and it has cost us three points once again.”

The 53-year-old Welshman reserved particular scorn for Gill’s reaction on the touchline. “I think the arrogance of the linesman is mental because he’s looking at me as if I’ve just volleyed his cat,” Jones said. “He’s made the biggest error of the night and he’s cost us the game and that is the Championship because the Championship is brutal.”

The outburst follows a similarly pointed post-match assessment after Charlton’s 4-0 defeat at Stoke on Saturday, in which Jones criticised referee Robert Madley over a penalty awarded for the Potters’ opening goal. “I’m bitterly disappointed with my own team’s performance, but I’m as bitterly disappointed with another performance as well,” he said that evening. “There were so many things that went against us.”

Jones, whose managerial career has included spells at Luton, Stoke and Southampton, has long been associated with candid — and occasionally surreal — press-conference moments. Reflecting previously on the ambition that drove him into the Premier League, he once remarked: “I could have stayed in a mining community, been a PE teacher and had a nice life, married a nice Welsh girl. Beautiful. I didn’t. And that’s nothing against Welsh women.”

Despite the frustration, Charlton remain well-placed in the second tier. The draw leaves them fifth, two points behind early pace-setters West Brom, with 11 points collected from their opening six matches. They return to action on Saturday when they host Portsmouth at The Valley.