A football referee appeared to square up to a player and locked heads with him in the closing stages of a match on Tuesday.

Darren Drysdale and Ipswich midfielder Alan Judge clashed in an extraordinary exchange during Town’s goalless EFL League One draw with Northampton.

Judge, 32, went down in the penalty area as Ipswich attacked in the 90th minute.

But, Drysdale, 48, did not award a penalty, ignoring the player’s pleas.

Judge protested the decision, walking towards Drysdale as he did so and the pair exchanged words before the match official leaned his head into Judge and appeared to square up to him.

Such incidents between players can result in one, or even both being sent off and are sometimes described as a “headbutt” even if the contact is minimal.

But rather than issue himself with a red card, the referee, who was then ushered away by a Northampton player, raised his yellow card and booked Judge for diving.

Ipswich manager Paul Lambert said he had asked the game’s authorities to investigate the incident.

Lambert told talkSPORT: “I’ve text Mike Jones (EFL head of referees) this morning to say have a look at the footage of the head thing.

“To me, in my opinion, it looks as if the referee went in there and I said to him after the game, ‘Did you put your head in my player?’

“He couldn’t answer it and that’s the reason I spoke to Mike. I haven’t seen that in a long, long while.”

An Ipswich spokesman told Sky Sports News that the club had not made any official complaint, but added: “We will leave it to the authorities to decide if there is to be any action taken.”

The Football Association has been made aware of the incident. Sky News has approached the Football Association and EFL for comment.

In the third minute of stoppage time, Town’s Flynn Downes was sent off for violent conduct in an ugly end to the match.

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