John Coleman accused referee Russell Booth of turning last Friday’s play-off second leg into ‘a pantomime’.
With the game live on Sky, the Nottinghamshire official infuriated the home camp with his lenient approach to Stevenage’s robust style of play.
That culminated in the double dismissal of Joe Jacobson and Sean McConville with 21 minutes remaining; the former for a lunging tackle on Lawrie Wilson and the latter for apparently raising his hands to Stacy Long in the aftermath.
"We knew they’d come with a game plan to spoil the game and I can’t believe they got away with it," Coleman said after the second leg.
"I didn’t know that Sean had been sent off so I can’t comment on that; as for Joe I’ll have to see that again.
"I know he’s tried to block the ball but anyone who knows Joe Jacobson will know he wouldn’t try and deliberately hurt anybody.
"There were a lot of things that went on before that that went unpunished.
"I said I expected them to time waste, feign injury and fall over at every opportunity so I’ll say no more.
"The one thing that rankled me all night was that when one of their centre-halves headed the ball, our centre-forward jumped, made contact and it was deemed a foul.
"On at least eight occasions, it wasn’t deemed a foul for us when they did it. I don’t think it was a victory for football; the first half bordered on being a pantomime."
Turning his attention back to the 90-something minutes for a moment, the Reds’ boss admitted his side didn’t deserve to go through over the two games.
Trailing to first-leg goals from Long and ex-Red Joel Byrom, Coleman saw his side struggle to breach a resolute Stevenage rearguard. McConville should have brought Stanley back into the game, only for Chris Day to save his close-range header.
After Stanley’s brace of red cards, they never looked like pulling a goal back and were undone by Chris Beardsley’s 90th minute finish.
Coleman said: "We let ourselves down on Sunday; give them credit, I think they deserve to be in the final. It’s been a terrific season for us but it’s gone sour at the end; now the hard work begins."
