A FURIOUS Lee Johnson feels Charlton Athletic’s match-winner, Jayden Stockley, should have not been on the field when he scored the only goal at the Stadium of Light – as he should have been sent off for a first half head-butt on Tom Flanagan.

Stockley inflicted Sunderland’s first home defeat of the season when he headed home Jonathan Leko’s second-half cross, and while he feels the goal was debatable because of a possible foul on Flanagan, Johnson claims a much clearer-cut infringement went unpunished before the break.

Referee Darren Drysdale failed to see anything wrong when Stockley clashed with Flanagan, but Johnson is adamant the Charlton forward head-butted the Sunderland centre-half.

As a result, he has called on the FA to investigate the incident, and expects Stockley to be on the receiving end of a lengthy ban.

Johnson said: “Jayden Stockley won't be available for the next three games because he's head-butted Tom Flanagan flush in the face. That will have to go to the FA.

“It's an absolute stonewall red card, and he's then gone on to score the goal so that's part of the decision making. There's eight sets of eyes who should be able to see that but for whatever reason, they haven't.

“I felt that there was a penalty for us in terms of their centre-half making a brilliant save. It's outside the line of the body. Is it a bit close to the body? That might be a mitigating factor but not when you speak to the referee and he says the arm is behind his body.

“Was it a foul (on Flanagan for the goal)? I don't know, there's two hands on him. It would have maybe been a bit soft, considering the level of contact he'd allowed through the game.

“It was like a judo game at times and he's set himself a precedent by allowing that. And then I felt Lynden Gooch was in on goal and he allowed contact which could have been a red card.”

Johnson intends to seek clarification over the degree of physical contact that will be allowed to go unpunished this season, with Drysdale’s leniency infuriating him to the extent that he received a yellow card during the second half.

He added: “The frustration is, are we coaching our players to wrestle, scrap, elbow, headbutt, whatever? Or will there be protection from the referees? I don't mind a bit of rough and tumble but I need to know what I can tell my players.

“You have to give them (Charlton) credit, we've had six wins on the spin at home and they've come out with three points in the bag.”

While Johnson was unhappy with the performance of the referee, he also accepted that his own players had not hit the standards they have set in the majority of their performances this season.

He said: “I didn't feel we deserved to lose the game, necessarily. Did we deserve to win it? Maybe not. If we'd come in 0-0, 1-1, I think that would have been a fair result.

“There were some key match decisions went against us today, which were unbelievable really. But we didn't have enough quality in the final third. We've been blessed with some wonderful play and deliveries in the final third (in other games this season).”