REFEREE body PGMOL has been in contact to tell Stoke City they should have had a penalty against Saints, manager Alex Neil has claimed.

The advice also admitted the free-kick awarded to Saints and scored by Stuart Armstrong for the winner was “soft”, he added.

The home side felt aggrieved during Tuesday’s 1-0 victory for Saints after Jan Bednarek had pulled Nathan Lowe down in the box.

Referee James Bell was on the receiving end of more than his fair share of abuse from the Stoke fans during and after the tie.

The Championship match bubbled over at the end of the fixture after Saints had confirmed their three points, with a massive altercation involving both teams.

Neil, speaking ahead of the weekend’s fixtures, confirmed that PGMOL had advised Stoke on their incident report.

He said: “They got in contact with us yesterday and basically confirmed our suspicions at the time that the free-kick was a soft one and arguably shouldn’t have been given.

"And that we had a penalty that wasn’t given for a foul on Nathan Lowe in the middle of the box. Really you only have to look at it back and if that’s not a penalty… it’s a rugby tackle, isn’t it?

“It does seem that sometimes you have the rub of the green when everything goes in your favour and there are other times when things you can’t control don’t go in your favour at all.

"Unfortunately at the moment when it comes to injuries or incidents in games, that seems to be the case.”