NORTHAMPTON manager Chris Wilder said referee Pat Miller was intimidated by Wanderers' players and staff during Saturday's fiery encounter.

The match threatened to boil over and end in fisticuffs between players of both sides as Blues snatched an equalising goal eight minutes into injury time.

Five minutes of stoppage time had already been signalled when an elbow to the face of Cobblers midfielder Ricky Ravenhill drew blood and led to the match being extended even further.

Wilder had seen his side reduced to ten men by one of the most laughable dismissals ever seen, as Gregor Robertson received his second yellow card for timewasting while waiting for the fourth official to indicate a substitution.

The Town manager had every right to be fuming at Miller's performance, with the referee handing out yellow cards left, right and centre towards the end as tempers frayed and the official lost control of the game.

But instead Wilder said that was down to Miller being pressurised by the hosts.

He said: "It's a difficult game for the referee. I thought he was put under some immense pressure from the sideline.

"That's for other clubs, other people to see the way they go about it. He's human, he sees a match as it is.

"It seemed to me from the start they were going to hammer the referee and the linesman.

"Maybe they thought they were a little bit unjust in a couple of decisions."

Wilder didn't complain about the incident leading to Ravenhill's injury, but the midfielder reacted furiously to comments Cobblers skipper Lee Collins claimed were made to him as he lay injured on the floor.

He said: "That's part and parcel of the game. It happens, it's a passionate game - two teams that want to go and get a result for their football clubs.

"I like Gareth, he's a passionate guy and his teams have a go."

Regarding Robertson's sending off, Wilder said: "The ref's a bit unfortunate because he's not seen the fourth official. We were making the substitution.

"Gregor's waiting for John-Joe [O'Toole] to come on, the fourth official's trying to get him on, and the ref's just not seen him. Maybe [if] he turned round and has a quick chat with the fourth official, that gets ironed out."

Wanderers boss Gareth Ainsworth had his own views on Miller's decisions, claiming his defender Aaron Pierre was fouled in the build-up to Ryan Cresswell's first half goal for Northampton.

He said however an equalising goal for Paul Hayes was correctly disallowed for offside, while the red card shouldn't have been flashed at Robertson.

The Blues boss said: "I thought he was very unfortunate to get sent off. Robertson was maybe waiting for a substitution to happen that didn't happen. It didn't seem like he was doing anything wrong.

"I saw a few things differently than other people. The game was very bitty, a lot of stoppages, a lot of fouls, a few yellow cards, penalty claims as well.

"I thought Aaron was fouled for their goal. He's in a tussle with someone else, rather than Cresswell.

"The one thing that was right was the goal that Paul Hayes scored - it was offside. He got that spot on so no gripes about that one."

Talking about the scenes at the end Ainsworth said: "It's passion. You've got to be passionate in any game of football, from Premier League right down to two guys on a Sunday.

"It spills over sometimes, especially when there's late equalisers and late pressure - that's football.

"It was two gladiator teams battling it out today. We probably got more out of it than Northampton did.

"It was a point well earned and a deserved point. I thought we were the better side second half and took the game to Northampton."