City of Liverpool manager Michael Ellison was left to rue missed opportunities as they slipped to defeat.
Ramsbottom United ran out 1-0 winners in a game marred by the controversy that saw Josh Quarless’ goal ruled out for offside.
The towering forward appeared to be in his own half as the pass was played before the linesman flagged.
Ellison labelled the officiating “pathetic” but didn’t pin the decision as the reason for his side’s defeat highlighting the lack of a clinical edge in the final third.
He told Off The Park: “[It’s] like deja-vu, probably the toughest one to take if I’m being honest. We come in at halftime, they had a really good chance and the lads missed a sitter against the run of play.
“I think we dominated possession, moved the ball well, got into good areas but that final pass wasn’t quite there. We created two really good chances, which you have to take and got into good situations where we could’ve had clear chances, shot when we should’ve crossed, crossed when we should’ve shot so the same thing.
“We spoke about it at half time, you can’t let those wait on your mind, you’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing, they scored a scruffy goal off a set-piece and got their noses in front then we were chasing the game so it’s a similar conversation we’ve had in the past.
“I’m disappointed, really disappointed not to get at least a point out the game, unfortunately we have to look at ourselves for that.”
“It was absolutely pathetic,” he added on the decision. “I knew at the time he [Josh Quarless] was in his own half. Their bench knew he was standing behind the line laughing so only the liner on that football pitch that thought that was offside, it wasn’t even close.
“It’s not the first time it’s happened, it’s happened a couple of times this season and the reverse fixture we got a goal disallowed and I just think the standard of the officiating is getting worse. The fact that he thought he was miles off is horrendous.
“But it happens week-in week-out going against us. We had one against Market Drayton we were winning 3-0 and the liner gave two or three offsides that were clearly on so it’s not as though we’re moaning because we didn’t win the game, the standard of officiating is horrendous and I don’t know what the answer is, it just base to improve.
“We can’t blame the officials, we can’t do anything about that. We could’ve stuck our chances away and if we’d of done that we’d of won the game anyway.”
It comes as a blow for the Purps as they enjoyed a decent run that saw them dispatch Prescot Cables by six unanswered goals.
But the ongoing problem it appears to be putting the ball in the back of the net, something Ellison himself is analysing intensely to rectify the “hardest thing” in football… scoring.
“No points is a kick in the teeth, I think even 1-0 down they had a couple of chances on the break, as you’d expect chasing the game, but we created chances, hit the post, we put one or two wide, numerous set pieces in the final third and just couldn’t convert.
“To not take nothing from the game is a real kick in the teeth but like I said it was a tough one to take.
“The lads have done that throughout the course of the season, when we’ve had a poor result we’ve bounced back with a performance.
“Again, as a manager my job is to analyse the performance not the results. If I look at the performance 90 minutes similar to the Kendal draw, if someone would’ve said you’d create three or four opportunities, 75 per cent possession I’d of took that.
“So I have to analyse the performance, there was lots of the performance which were right, lots of things we done really well and unfortunately we couldn’t get that bit in the final third which is the hardest thing to do in football.”
[Featured image: City of Liverpool]
