DESPAIRING Accrington Stanley boss John Coleman was fuming after he slammed refereeing decisions for leaving his side teetering on the edge of the League Two drop zone.
With just two games left of the season, the Reds are two points away from the bottom two after referee Andy Penn ruled a "goal" off-side and failed to award a penalty against play-off chasing Shrewsbury.
And while he knows it has been a familiar theme this season - that he has been bemoaning the men in the middle - he couldn't hide his frustration with Saturday's sixth successive defeat on their travels.
"I sound like a moaning Minnie and I'm sick to death of myself for saying it," said Coleman "But I know I'm right and anyone's welcome to watch the videos.
"The decisions we've had this season have been absolutely diabolical and it must have cost us 12-15 points.
"We'd be comfortably mid-table now. But that's football and that's life."
It was hoped it would be a memorable final trip to Gay Meadow before their new ground is completed but it turned out to be memorable for all the wrong reasons.
On a pitch that is more used to being underwater and flooded for some weeks of the season, last Saturday it looked like it had not been watered for years with numerous areas of the pitch down to bare dry sand.
It was hardly ideal conditions to play an important game on but it started well for Stanley when Paul Mullin latched onto a Jay Harris cross on nine minutes to put Stanley into a valuable early lead and celebrate his 16th goal of the League Two campaign.
Stanley continued to pass the ball around well and it should have been even better a few minutes later when Rommy Boco, after receiving the ball from Sean Doherty on the left, saw his 25 yard shot deflect off Andy Todd to find the back of the net.
Boco was celebrating - but the assistant referee gave off-side much to Coleman's frustration.
But it was only a taste of things to come for the Reds as the match officials became Stanley's nemesis.
Referee Penn struggled to control the match and it seemed to the noisy Stanley fans that it just was not going to be their day after all.
And to make matters worse, the disallowed Stanley goal seemed to jolt promotion hopefuls Shrewsbury into action and it was just ten minutes later the equaliser came.
The Shrews had looked dangerous from corners and Neil Ashton's in-swinging flag-kick was mis-kicked by Boco on the right-hand post and he had to watch the ball slide under him into the bottom right hand corner of the goal.
"You expect teams to have a go at home but unfortunately we've buckled under two corners," said Coleman.
"Rommy's the best at defending the near post area at the club and you can't legislate for him slicing the ball into his own net."
Referee Penn then played a major part in what was a turning point in the game just before half-time.
Winger Sean Doherty had both legs taken from underneath him by Lee Canoville in the penalty area and all the Stanley faithful were waiting for the referee to point to the penalty spot.
Instead, they were stunned when he was adjudged to have dived - and was booked much to everyone's disbelief.
Coleman was furious: "The two crucial moments are the goal getting disallowed and a stonewall penalty that wasn't given and we end up getting a lad booked, which is doubly hard to take.
"I think if we get to half-time 1-0 it's a different game.
