David Artell slammed the performance of the match referee after his side lost out 3-2 to Cambridge United at Gresty Road.

Referee David Rock had already sent off Paul Green with a straight red card in the first half when he gave a hugely questionable penalty after Perry Ng seemed to make a clean tackle with the scores locked at two apiece.

There were also several other smaller scale incidents throughout the game that Artell was bewildered with.

Having said that, the boss was delighted with his side's grit and determination to fight a way back into the game in the second half and believed his side should have gained at least a point against the U's.

Artell said: “I thought my players gave everything they’ve got – and some more.

“The first half was a bit of a non-event from our point of view because we didn’t move the ball around quick enough and we conceded a ridiculously poor goal. It was direct play, straight from the goalkeeper and then three more touches until it was in the back of our net.

“I thought we controlled the game without hurting them, or trying to hurt them. Then there was the big decision [the sending off], but the referee had already lost the game at that point because of the amount of dives and kicking the ball away moments that their players did that he didn’t clamp down on.

“Then he makes a big decision. Rightly or wrongly, it was a big decision and then second was something else. We’ve been beaten by the referee today.

“Second half we came out fighting and deservedly took the lead, then we shot ourselves in the foot with the equaliser, then the referee came to the centre of attention again and gives a brilliant tackle as a penalty.

“You can’t legislate for that. As much preparation as we’ve done, you can’t legislate for a referee getting so much wrong.

“The best thing about it was that his boss, Mike Jones - who is head of all the referees, has been here to see it.

“The referee has let him down, never mind us and all the fans and players. He’s let his boss down today.

“I don’t want to speak about referees, but when they’re that bad you can’t help but talk about them. He’ll go back to being an architect or a Maths Teacher Monday morning thinking nothing is wrong, referee another game on Tuesday night and everything will be hunky-dory. It stinks.”