Speaking on Thursday ahead of Saturday’s 2-0 loss to Huddersfield Town, in which referee Matthew Corlett was chastised by both sets of supporters, Hunt spoke about the officials at Sincil Bank and more generally. “We’re constantly learning and trying to improve, and I like to think that everyone in the game is too.

We were told about the eight-second rule and holding in the box, but the number of fouls that were not given to us while attempting to break away, tactical fouls that occurred repeatedly.

“I believe there were 14 fouls to four in the game, with five or six being off-the-ball. If you look at the goal, their manager told me after the game that they were working on blocking and preventing our fullback from getting involved.

For me, that is a clear obstruction, and they must recognise that when it occurs, it is a tactical ploy and technically a foul. When pressed further about officials and whether filing reports after matches is a good way to improve the standard, Hunt stated that he no longer does so.

“I gave up on that because I believe it was a waste of my time. Last year, I received responses that seemed patronising to us.

For example, the offside goal against Burton, when Jon-Dadi [Bodvarsson] is two yards offside, we write the letter and take time out of our schedule, and they come back saying, “We see how you can see it may be marginally offside,” they are wasting our time. “They have assessors there who, if they do their jobs correctly, can punish or praise their officials as they see fit.

It is not my job.”We are told and asked not to surround the referees or get in his face, but getting a ball kicked in your face from a yard is a clear display of disrespect, and nothing is done about it.

I’d like to focus on our team and players to ensure that this does not happen from our perspective, but we are prepared to fight.” Reading travel to Portsmouth in the Carabao Cup tomorrow, hoping to end a two-game scoring drought in League One.

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