St Albans City manager Ian Allinson expressed plenty of sympathy for referees but felt there were some strange decisions in the clash with Chelmsford City at Clarence Park.

Saints came away with a 2-1 win in an action-packed game on Tuesday night which saw three disallowed goals and penalty shouts at both ends.

The one decision that annoyed him the most came with 15 minutes to go when former City keeper Joe Welch came out and brought down Sam Merson who had broken clear.

However, while the referee said it was a foul, he said it was on the edge of the area chose only to book the Chelmsford custodian.

This is just one of the new rules that have come into football for this season.

Allinson said: “We’ve had a goal disallowed, they’ve had two disallowed, we’ve hit the crossbar and for me we’ve had a blatant penalty and red card.

“I don’t know how the ref can give a yellow. His statement after the game was [Merson] wasn’t in control of the ball and was going away from goal and wouldn’t have scored.

“I read it different and thought Sam would have gone and put the ball in the empty net.

“You change the laws and nobody knows whether it’s a red or yellow because we’ve over-complicated it. We should stick to what we had before; it’s a red card and it’s a sending off. It’s a simple as that.

“It’s now based on the referee’s interpretation, his position and it just causes controversy.

“I think it’s very difficult for referees as they have to make these decisions. The simple solution is it’s a red card and we get on with the game.”

He felt the coming together in the first half between Tom Bender and Shaun Jeffers looked like a penalty from his position although the Chelmsford man was booked for diving.

And again from his position on the bench, he thought Ben Martin’s goal was rightly ruled out.

Others closer to the action disagreed though saying there had been no contact.

But overall he was delighted with the players’ response from Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Bath City.

He added: “The one thing I didn’t want was a repeat of Saturday. If we get beat but everyone’s given everything they’ve got we can’t have any questions.

“There were a lot of questions on Saturday but tonight they’ve given every ounce of energy they’ve got and worked extremely hard.”