Manager John Sheridan felt the red card brandished to Connor Brown on 41 minutes spoilt the game as a whole as his side fell to defeat at Bradford.
Brown was dismissed at the end of the first half for a challenge on Kyle Reid and Sheridan, who took charge of his first game since returning as manager, felt the decision ruined the game.
He said: "It is always difficult after getting a man sent off. I was quite pleased with how the game was going.
"They are a big threat, they play off Hanson and they get forward quickly but our goalkeeper hasn’t had much to do and I was comfortable in the way we were playing the game.
"When the sending off comes it’s always difficult, and it spoils the game really. I’ve not seen it yet but I’ve been told he’s won the ball. Whether his momentum has followed through I don’t know.
"Browny has got a big gash on his shin and I think he’s just made a genuine attempt to get the ball but that’s just football today. This is why I’m all for ex players being referees.
"An ex player would have known he made a genuine attempt to get the ball, and that one hasn’t. The lad is not even hurt, he gets up and starts running around and sprinting a minute later but I don’t want to talk about referees.
"I thought it was a really battling performance, we worked our socks off and I saw a lot of good things in us. I’ve only been here two days and I played a 3-5-2 which is a bit of a different system and I felt it might get us something out the game and it worked okay.
“The lads aren’t used to me yet but I saw a lot of good performances, I just want us to pass the ball a little bit quicker. I’ll try and get into them how I want us to play a bit more and work on the formation.”
With time running out in the game, Sheridan threw caution to the wind and went in search for an equalising goal.
“I wasn’t too bothered if we lost two or three nil, I was just trying to get something out the game,” he admitted.
“I put Jonathan [Forte] and Dom [Poleon] on and went three upfront and two in midfield just to try and snatch something from the game but the red card totally ruined the game on our part.”
Just under 1,000 supporters made the trip to the Coral Windows Stadium yesterday and Sheridan was full of praise for the vocal support.
He said: “With the reception I got off the fans, I would have loved to have got something from the game. They were right behind the team but we’ve just got to stick together.
"It was a shame we didn’t get anything but it weren’t for the lack of trying. Hopefully I can work on things a bit more this week and get the lads to do things a bit quicker and get at the opposition more.”
Watch the full interview on Latics PlayerHD.