YORK City boss Billy McEwan gave referee Shaun Procter-Green zero out of ten in his report after a controversial performance during Saturday's 4-2 defeat against Conference leaders Accrington Stanley.

McEwan labelled Procter-Green an "idiot" and described his display as "abysmal", "disgraceful" and "inadequate" after seeing the Gainsborough official award a dubious penalty against the Minstermen and then fail to give a blatant spot-kick for his own team at the other end.

The City boss was first incensed by Procter-Green's decision to penalise Jamie Price when, with the home side leading 2-1, the experienced right-back was harshly adjudged to have handled a Gary Roberts cross.

McEwan then momentarily left his dugout in disgust and headed down the players' tunnel when, with City trailing 3-2, the Lincolnshire referee overlooked a clear shove on Andy Bishop in the visitors' six-yard box.

Afterwards, a fuming McEwan said: "We got done by an official who nearly caused me to walk out of the ground in disgust because of his decisions. The penalty against us was an absolutely criminal decision. It hit Jamie in the face and even their player could not believe it.

"Then, Andy Bishop's gone to put the ball in the net from a free header and the lad has knocked him out of the way. If the referee couldn't see that then he needs to go to the opticians and get some glasses.

"It was an absolutely disgraceful and abysmal performance and I told him after the game that he had a poor, poor match and would be getting no marks from me at all. You cannot legislate for decisions by poor officials and I wanted to walk out of the ground because I thought what's the point in me doing my job?

"If you have an official as inadequate as that I may as well not be a manager of a football club because it's a waste of time when idiots like him spoil the game."

The Minstermen led 2-1 at half-time through Clayton Donaldson and Andy Bishop efforts and, even though his team went on to concede more than two goals in a league game for ths first time this season, McEwan was proud of the performance against champions elect Stanley.

He said: "I thought my players were superb, especially in the first half, and more than matched a team who are well ahead of anybody else in the league. The defending could have been

better and we gave them a couple of goals but we were playing against the top side and one or two heads went down after their second goal.

"I felt really sorry for my boys because they did not get what they deserved and got kicked in the teeth with the result but the performance was fantastic. The first half was a great advertisement for the Conference and probably belonged in the Football League as the tempo was superb from both teams."

Despite high praise for his own side, McEwan expressed his admiration for Accrington and pointed out that they must be considered as the benchmark for his side, adding: "They still worked their socks off to close us down after they had scored their fourth goal and I said to my boys that if you want to be a really top side, as I am sure we will be, then those are the lessons we have to learn."

Updated: 10:00 Monday, March 27, 2006