A controversial and stormy Johnstone's Paints Trophy tie ended with a 1-0 defeat to Macclesfield Town, and to compound matters we ended with only nine men as both Chris Llewellyn and Michael Proctor received red-cards during the second-half from match referee Mr Drysdale.

The only goal of the game came from a controversial penalty after Marc Williams had been harshly penalised and Michael Husbands coolly slotted home the kick.

Brian Carey was bemused by the whole affair: "I think that at this stage it was very difficult to sum that match up.

"The really disappointing thing though is that we have lost the game.

"I think that everybody that was here tonight, and everyone that witnessed it, would agree that it was a great improvement in the performance and would have been pleased with the amount of chances we created.

"We should have won the game in the first twenty minutes when we had a one-on-one with the goalkeeper on numerous occasions.

"I have said for weeks though that is all about results.

"I am not too sure why Chris was given a yellow card and then a red card. I am going into see the referee shortly to clarify matters, as I have to wait thirty minutes before I can go and see him. Michael Proctor has said that he has landed on the guy as he's come down, and that he doesn't even know that he was there when he jumped out of the way of a tackle.

"I just think that he, the referee, kind of lost the run of the game. I think that from one instance at one end where Matty Done hit the crossbar, we are shouting for a penalty, and they go to the other end and from a very, very innocuous challenge they get one. His performance tonight is all that we will be talking about and he has cost us.

"Despite the injuries that we have suffered tonight, we actually coped quite well and that is something that we will have to think about. Ryan, Mike Williams and Eifion had to go off after picking up knocks and we'll have to see how they are.