OLDHAM Athletic manager Dino Maamria believes Tuesday nights 3-0 loss to Accrington Stanley in the EFL Trophy should act as a wake-up call.

Maamria believes referee Ben Toner played too big of a part in the match after awarding the Reds a spot kick and sending an Oldham player off.

The Oldham boss wants Dylan Fage to learn from his mistakes after being sent off for a reckless challenge.

"It doesn't look good, no disrespect to Accrington they came here and beat us, it's not good and I think that it's a wake-up call for everyone," said Maamria.

"It's a wake up call for everyone, the more I see of the players, the more I learn about them.

"But I've got to be honest, I thought we started brightly on the front and looked much better than them.

"I think everyone who turned up will be going home talking about the referee.

"I thought his performance was very, very poor and arguably cost us the game.

"The first goal was never a handball and then he gives a handball, then Scott Wilson is wrestled to the ground, it's embarrassing actually, and he doesn't give it.

"The penalty is the softest penalty you'll ever see and then there's the sending off. The referee was probably man of the match.

"He's a very, very inexperienced referee and they've put him in this competition.

"It mattered to us and I wanted to the win game. It puts a damper on it."

Dylan Fage was shown a red card on the stroke of half-time, this ended the game as a contest as Oldham were already trailing Stanley by two goals at this stage.

"Dylan has got to learn from that because it's amateur and unprofessional and I will fine him for that," added Maamria.

"You can't go into challenges like that and not just give the ball away, but to go in two-footed and cost us the game and cost his teammates.

"I think that it's a learning curve for him but we've got to deal with it in the right way and there is a lot of ill-discipline and I'm going to get on top of it and there is a lack of fitness as well especially from the squad players."