DESPONDENT York City boss Billy McEwan lamented the standard of Conference refereeing after watching his side surrender a two-goal advantage in Saturday's 2-2 home draw with Grays Athletic.

Ilkley official Paul Varley awarded Grays a questionable free-kick that provided Glenn Poole with the opportunity to pull the first goal back for the visitors and on-loan MK Dons forward Ben Harding then struck on 77 minutes to cancel out Steve Bowey and Lewis McMahon's earlier efforts and earn the Essex club a share of the spoils.

McEwan was left seething by Varley's performance afterwards following on from refereeing displays he also perceived as poor in City's previous two outings at Halifax and Kidderminster.

The frustrated City boss said: "The refereeing was absolutely frightening. I'm disappointed and fed up with the referees at this level.

"He was c**p. There's no other word for it.

"It was weak refereeing. It's about time it's sorted out because we are saying it every week.

"It's absolutely scandalous and it's driving me nuts. The free-kick decision was harsh although I'm disappointed with how it went in with the wall and one or two other things."

McEwan was less scathing about his side letting a two-goal lead slip.

Goalscorer McMahon lost the ball 25 yards from his own goal to present Harding with the chance to equalise but McEwan was careful not to be too critical, putting his side's inability to hold on to their early advantage down to naivety.

He said: "There are areas where you play football and areas where you don't in your defensive third and that's what we did but I can't be too critical of my players because they are only babies. They are 21 and 22-year-olds but that's my decision. I've got to take responsibility for that but I know they will develop and be all right.

"The opening 20 or 25 minutes was also the best football I have seen from the team since I have been in charge. Some of the movement and attacking play was absolutely fantastic.

"We took our foot off the pedal when we were 2-0 up. We then got careless, sloppy and panicked.

"I thought the boys were outstanding with their effort and commitment but some of them are naive and will make rash decisions and get punished. Grays also deserve credit though as they changed things and adjusted because they feared they might get beaten by five or six and caused us problems."

Grays also missed a penalty, conceded by captain Emmanuel Panther, and McEwan added his growing frustration at his side's needless fouling.

He said: "I can't keep telling then to stop giving away silly fouls in dangerous areas. It must be tattooed on my head."

McEwan also bemoaned the condition of the KitKat Crescent pitch and the suspension of Clayton Donaldson, who was serving the second game of his three-match ban.

He said: "The pitch is like a cabbage patch. It was not conducive to either side trying to play football. We did well at times but, on the wings, players were sinking three of four inches into the turf.

"We also had our top scorer sat in the stand and he should be hurting because we were without him which is no good to anybody because I believe he would have got a couple of goals."