Wally Downes insists referee Trevor Kettle made a mistake sending off Mitch Pinnock in AFC Wimbledon’s defeat to Charlton at the Valley.

After being booked for a late sliding challenge, Pinnock received his second yellow on 33 minutes when he was adjudged to have dived near the edge of the penalty area.

Mr Kettle and the nearside linesman both believe there was no contact between the Dons frontman and defender Patrick Bauer, but Downes is adamant the officials made an error in their judgement.

It was the second of two reds shown by the man in the middle after Naby Sarr was sent off 56 seconds into the clash - apparently the fastest in Charlton's history.

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He said: “It clearly was a foul and the referee has made a mistake.

“I said to him and the linesman ‘Why did you send him off?’ and he said ‘I thought he dived’. He is very close to the incident and saw it and has got it wrong.

“I thought we were always comfortable in the first half. They didn’t cause us any real problems and we knew how they were going to play.

“If Mitch doesn’t get sent off we would have got stronger in the game and the outcome would have been different.”

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The struggling Dons have now lost seven consecutive league games away from home following the defeat to Charlton at the Valley.

It was the 1-0 victory at Gillingham in early September when they last won on the travels, one of two in League One this campaign.

Downes added: “We’ll approach [the Wycombe game next weekend] in the same way, looking to win and take all three points.”