Ballinamallard manager Gavin Dykes felt referee Ian McNabb had a bad night at the office as the Mallards slipped to a 2-1 defeat to Glentoran at the Oval on Tuesday night.
The Mallards had led through a  34th minute Sean Noble effort and had dealt comfortably with what the Glens had thrown at them up to that point.
But the key decision of the game arrived two minutes before half time when McNabb flashed a red card at Mallards goalkeeper Richard Brush after he took down Curtis Allen outside the box. This came despite Brush not being the last man as defender Mattie Smyth was goal side of his keeper when the incident occurred.
And to compound matters, the Glens equaliser in the 68th minute arrived from a corner that Dykes feels was clearly a goal kick. 
“I’m gutted for the players, it was a massive effort that we put in tonight. At 11 v 11 we were 1-0 up and quite comfortable to be honest and I couldn’t see anything happening.
“I think it (the red card) is a very poor refereeing decision. Richard Brush comes out of goals, he makes a tackle outside the box and it’s a yellow card, but he’s not last man, there’s defenders behind him and yet he gets sent off. 
“That changed the whole game, we had to put McKenna in goals and we had to sit in. And to make matters worse, they then score a goal from a corner kick that is never a corner kick to equalise. They were even laughing on their bench about it,” fumed Dykes.
Dykes felt that his side had defended well after losing Brush and Glentoran only threatened once in the 20 minute period after half time with McKenna saving from Allen.
“In fairness to James didn’t have a lot to do. We defended really, really well and we stuck to our game plan. We organised things at half time and we worked our socks off, we even hit the crossbar but once they score the momentum changes. It was never a corner and that is the hurtful thing. They then score the winner late on and Davy Kee was sent off and I’ve no problem with that if it was for dissent,” he said.
And it has not been the first controversial decision to have gone against Ballinamallard when facing Glentoran this season.
“The first game of the season we played Glentoran and Curtis Allen scores with handball, the most blatant handball you will see,and not a thing done about it and then we come up here tonight and we get a goalkeeper sent off and in my opinion it was the wrong decision and then a goal from a corner which wasn’t a corner.”