DAVE JONES feels Hartlepool United were on the wrong end of some key refereeing decisions on Saturday.

Pools drew 1-1 at Morecambe, after being denied a late free-kick on the edge of the home area.

But it was the failure of Sunderland referee Andy Haines to send off Paul Mullin which angered Jones.

As Pools restarted the game after Mullin’s leveller, the attacker ran past Nathan Thomas and felled him with an arm.

Haines booked Mullin, when a red card should have been produced.

“Should we have had a handball? It looked it,’’ reflected Jones.

“But why did the referee book their lad from the kick-off? He’s elbowed Nathan and he has to go, what’s he booking him for? Let’s see what’s on his sheet. He’s booked him for elbowing him, he actually tells the lads that.

“It’s a blatant elbow in the back of the head. Why book him? Is he booking him for obstruction? It’s an elbow.

“But we had enough chances to win it.’’

He added: “We went in front and they came back at us second-half, but we still had chances inside the box. We make a final pass instead of shooting, get it away, don’t let the goalkeeper set himself.

“As I said we fought hard and we have to do that.’’

Pools take on Carlisle at home on Easter Monday in a game of huge importance with only five matches remaining.

And defender Liam Donnelly admitted: "It will be a massive game, a bit of a derby, hopefully we'll go into it confident.

"We are confident in our own ability, the fans have been unbelievable as well.

"Hopefully we'll get through it be getting a few wins to stay up.’’

He added: “It's a massive game but we are confident we can come out of it with the three points.

"We were very upset with the result at Carlisle, losing especially after they went down to 10 men, but it's been a symptom of our season, conceding sloppy goals.

"Hopefully we'll cut that sort of stuff out now and get the three points we need."