Wycombe Wanderers manager Gareth Ainsworth believes his side should have been given a ‘stonewall’ penalty in their 3-2 home loss against Cambridge United.

Right on the stroke of half-time, Anis Mehmeti was tripped in the box by Lloyd Jones, but referee, Peter Wright, waved away the appeals with the score at 1-1.

Seconds later, the Us went in front thanks to a brilliant strike by Jack Lankester.

READ MORE: Wycombe's unbeaten streak is over following shock 3-2 home loss against Cambridge

Loud boos and jeers for the man in the middle were heard as the half came to a close, yet despite feeling hard done by, Ainsworth insisted that his side needed to ‘defend’ regardless of the decision not going their way.

He explained: “It was an absolute stonewall penalty but if you don’t get it, you don’t get it.

“You have got to defend.

“When the second goal went in, that was a real blow for me as it was right on the stroke of half-time.

“It’s a different team talk at half-time so when that went in, we put ourselves behind with the way we defended.

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“It looked like we had a hangover from the decision and Cambridge went down the other end and scored.

“We didn’t defend the counterattack well and it was poor, really, really poor.

“If we didn’t get the penalty, it would have been 1-1 at half-time if we had defended.

“You can’t feel aggrieved and not defend.

"We conceded and it was a mountain to climb after going 2-1 down.”

READ MORE: Gareth Ainsworth on Wycombe's 'poor showing' as Wanderers lose at home to Cambridge 

Finally, the boss confirmed why Chris Forino was omitted from the squad.

The Chairboys made one change to the game following the victory at Milton Keynes on October 22, with Jack Grimmer coming in to replace the outgoing centre back.

Ainsworth said: “Chris was ill and hopefully he will be back for Saturday.”