It''s very hard not to sound bitter about this game which was ruined by the referee. Field mill hasn''t been a happy hunting ground for Tranmere for some time and their league record suggested we''d have to be at our best to get anything out of the game but from the kick off it was clear we were up for it with a bright opening ten minutes. The first worrying moment came with a needless reducer in front of the dugouts by a rovers player which was unnecessary and stupid but shortly after we should have had a penalty(a soft one but a penalty none the less with a clear barge) the ref chose not to give it and to add insult to injury a crazy booking for McCullough minutes later off the ball as a Mansfield player cut across the front of him with the slightest contact clearly unavoidable. My only criticism of Mansfield was that they were constantly surrounding the referee and calling for cards for every foul no matter how minor. The game turned against us with a red card midway through the first half which I have no issues with, banks went in hard and got a yellow five minutes later he made a similar challenge which was criminal having been cautioned. A home win from this point was clearly the obvious outcome but the referee continued to wind rovers players and fans up alike, half a dozen strong shoulder barges on away players which most referees would have seen as fouls were ignored whilst every slight misdemeanour committed was pounced on and with the Mansfield players baying for cards the ref was happy to oblige. The final stats state we didn''t have a shot on target but the result could have been different had that early penalty been awarded. As for the official he hadn''t endeared himself with another poor performance when we played at Gresty road so we can only pray we don''t get him again in a hurry!