City boss Bryan Gunn blasted the controversial refereeing decision that turned yesterday's East Anglian derby in Ipswich Town's favour. With an hour gone and the score 1-1, referee Neil Swarbrick gave Town a penalty when goalkeeper David Marshall was adjudged to have felled Kevin Lisbie, Giovani Dos Santos scoring from the spot en route to a 3-2 win.

City boss Bryan Gunn blasted the controversial refereeing decision that turned yesterday's East Anglian derby in Ipswich Town's favour.

With an hour gone and the score 1-1, referee Neil Swarbrick gave Town a penalty when goalkeeper David Marshall was adjudged to have felled Kevin Lisbie, Giovani Dos Santos scoring from the spot en route to a 3-2 win.

Gunn's reign has been plagued by refereeing controversy, including the red card shown to Gary Doherty by Andy D'Urso for conceding a penalty against Bristol City - later overturned on appeal - and referee Mick Russell phoning to admit his mistake when he disallowed David Mooney's "goal" in the 1-0 home defeat by Sheffield Wednesday a fortnight ago. But in both cases, it was too late to salvage valuable points. Swarbrick's decision - not accompanied by any card for Marshall - simply bewildered Gunn.

"He doesn't know what he's done," he said. "He's given a penalty kick from a long way away. If the striker's going to go through and score, it's a red card.

"That tells you everything. I was very angry, especially when the Ipswich Town manager came up to me and said he didn't think it was a penalty, and when you walk off and Kevin Lisbie says he wasn't going to get to the ball. He kicked it too far on and although there was contact between him and David Marshall, I thought it was minimal. His momentum had taken him forward and then the referee decided to give the penalty kick from about the halfway line, so you put all those things together - and when you see it on the video again, there was a handball in the motion when Lisbie took the ball under control."

Gunn admitted City were not at their best, but said: "Commitment was there from the players. We didn't play well but sometimes you don't do that in derby games and you come out with a result. Ipswich got that little bit of luck that sometimes you need."

Of striker Alan Lee, Gunn added: "Alan was workmanlike. Their defenders had targeted him for some special treatment as well. He did a job for us today. I suppose the only thing missing from his performance was a goal. Alan won us the penalty as well. But we didn't get the ball in the box often enough. Some of the crosses coming in the goalkeeper took on too many occasions."

Winger Lee Croft hobbled off with a calf injury in the second half, and Gunn said: "He took a knock - a heavy knock - and at that time we couldn't have any passengers in the team."