Troy Deeney said Wes Hoolahan admitted he dived to win Norwich City a penalty against Watford and the Hornets captain believes referees should be made accountable when they get big decisions wrong.

In a tight contest at Vicarage Road this afternoon, the Canaries were awarded a 65th-minute spot kick when Hoolahan fell in the penalty area. Miguel Layun was adjudged by referee Carl Berry to have fouled the midfielder but the Mexican clearly made no contact.

Lewis Grabban dispatched the penalty to put Norwich in front. It changed the dynamics of the game and then Cameron Jerome added a second before Grabban netted the third to complete the victory.

Deeney spoke after the game and attempted to keep his emotions in check. However, the striker was clearly frustrated and, as always, spoke his mind despite knowing he could face a fine.

“It is a dive,” he said. “Wes told us he has dived and that is frustrating. These are the things that keep going against us though.

“I have to be careful with what I say but how many times has this happened now? That is what has to be asked.”

He continued: “Look at his (Hoolahan's) reaction. Is he rolling around in pain or did he get straight back up? There is a linesman on that side as well.

“To be honest, we are probably better just playing with the referee. I am not sure what the linesman does anymore except to give throw-ins and signal which way it is going.

“The linesman is that side yet a penalty is still given. They (the refereeing team) have to work [together] and do their job. That is what we have to do. If I don’t score people then question me so if refs keep making bad mistakes, who is questioning them?

“We argue about this in the Premier League, the Championship, League One and League Two. At the end of the day, they are humans and will make mistakes. But we are made accountable. If somebody elbows somebody and it isn’t seen they there is retrospective action and there is a three-game ban.

“Referees keep making mistakes but it doesn’t matter they get another game next week. Where is the fairness in it?

“This is not one or two games; this is happening week in week out. That is my stance on it but nobody wants to hear what Troy Deeney says anyway.”

Watford have been on the wrong end of questionable decisions several times this season.

Against Norwich City at the start of the campaign Joel Ekstrand was dismissed for an alleged elbow on Nathan Redmond.

At Reading Gabriele Angella was shown a second yellow card for handball despite falling onto the ball whilst running and versus Bournemouth Angella was dismissed for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity by Lee Probert 25 seconds into the game. A red card that was overturned three days later.

And against Bolton Wanderers last weekend the referee’s assistant flagged for offside but play continued and the Trotters scored an equaliser.

An annoyed Deeney continued: "These decisions keep happening in the bigger games. We might get away with it in the lesser games. Against Bolton we had the offside but not offside decision and there was Bournemouth.

“It has happened in numerous occasions this season and it f***** us to be fair. All in all though Norwich cracked on because they are a good team.

“For us though it is now one too many times. Fair play to the ref, he has said ‘if he has done me, then he has done me’. But the fact he is in the wrong means f*** all to us. Lee Probert was in the wrong and we lost that game after 25 seconds.

“Monday morning they say the red card is rescinded but we still lose the three points. So we are playing catch up.

“Again today we’ve lost three points - although I am not saying we wouldn’t have lost even if the penalty was given. But initially there was nothing in the game. So you could argue we’ve lost six points and that is how many we are off top spot.”