Roy McFarland was as unhappy with the referee yesterday as most fans, going by his comments in today's Sunday Express.

"The only protection my players can get is from the referee. I told them not to retaliate and to their credit they didn't, but the ref let the game get out of control at times."

Referee Bill Burns only booked four Bamber Bridge players in the game despite them setting out their stall from the first minutes and it took him 66 minutes to book big defender Jez Baldwin who spent most of the game draped over Trevor Benjamin. Perhaps he had forgotten the custom is to swap shirts after the game, not during it!

"We had Bamber Bridge watched so we knew what they were like," added McFarland, and he was more generous about his opponents than his Bridge counterpart.

Tony Greenwood grumbled, "I felt we were cheated out of the game. It was a dubious penalty decision," while in Sport First McFarland said, "I thought Bamber Bridge did very well. They matched us as far as football was concerned and they rarely allowed us to get going.

"I was disappointed with the refereeing though. We were being pulled down all over the place and there was no protection for our players. But we got through in the end and now we want one of the top teams in the third round."

McFarland had the players in for training today, not as punishment for a poor performance yesterday, but to prepare for the next important League game on Tuesday night at Wrexham.

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