Roy McFarland was understandably furious after a dubious penalty decision robbed his side of their 1-0 lead six minutes from time at Brentford on Saturday. Lorenzo Pinamonte blasted a shot goalwards from close to Martin McNeil and the ball hit the teenage defender's arm, which was at his side, but referee Barry Knight awarded a penalty from which Brentford equalised.

The normally composed former England international said it was the "final straw" in a season peppered with questionable refereeing decisions, and he told the Cambridge Evening News, "I've always supported referees and have been happy to speak at their meetings and dinners.

"Now, I won't even be going into their room before matches to hand in the team sheet and talk to them. Another dreadful decision has cost us the victory a great performance deserved.

"I asked the referee how fast he thought the ball which hit Martin was travelling, and he said, 'about 100 mph,' I said 'how far away do you think the lad was?' he said 10 yards, when it was quite a bit less and Martin had no chance to react in any way, let alone use his hand to stop the shot.

"It wasn't a penalty, but if the referee saw it that way we should have had one when John Hansen's cross hit Carl Hutchings. When I put that to the referee, I could hardly believe his answer. He said: 'Was that in the first half or the second?'"

The penalty kick was delayed as United's players protested furiously at what they saw as a huge injustice, and Knight was again surrounded by United's players at the final whistle before being escorted from the pitch by stewards.

McNeil himself was adamant that he did not block the ball, and told the CEN, "The ball just hit me, I hardly saw it, it was going that fast. I didn't have time to react in any way, let alone raise an arm to stop the ball. And anyway it's not a thing you'd do in the penalty area in that position."

Goalkeeper Shaun Marshall was well-positioned behind him so there was no need to intentionally block the ball even if he had had time to do so. "I couldn't believe it when the referee gave the penalty," the 19-year-old continued. "How could he give it for deliberate handball when the ball hit my arm which was against my body?"

United's mild-mannered skipper Paul Wanless called it a "disgraceful" decision and added ironically, "If Martin can react that quickly to stop a shot with his hands, what we ought to do is drop Shaun Marshall and put him in goal."

Brentford boss Ron Noades admitted he was "delighted" with the late penalty award and added, "I was pleased with the draw. Gavin Mahon's shot was worthy of a goal. The keeper produced a good save. Cambridge had two strong midfielders. They had a lot of width, dead balls were going to be dangerous. When they were one up, we had real problems."

Their scorer Paul Evans also mentioned Shaun Marshall's excellent injury time save from Gavin Mahon: "The keeper has produced a terrific save from Gavin's shot. He won't save many better then that."