Chorley 2 Spennymoor Town 0.

Spennymoor manager Jason Ainsley was furious with the match referee after Moors crashed out of the FA Cup at Chorley on Saturday.

The game turned on two penalty decisions in the first half, one not awarded and one given, both against Moors, and it turned into a very unsatisfactory afternoon for Moors on their return to the ground where they lost the play off final last season.

However, Moors were also unable to find a way past Chorley keeper Matt Urwin, who pulled off several outstanding saves.

“I can’t understand what was going on with the penalties,” said Ainsley.

“For the first one, James Roberts got into the box, and his legs were taken away by a defender’s tackle.

“For the second one, James Curtis headed a ball into our box away, and Carl Magnay was behind with their lad. Nobody appealed for it, everyone was wondering why he’d given it. Nobody in the ground knew – their lads on the bench were laughing because it was so soft. It was a massive call in the game. The referee killed it; he was poor throughout the game for both sides.

“I thought the referee lost the plot all game and was very inconsistent. He gave a load of free kicks, one of which they scored from, but having said that, we should have done better with it.

“Their keeper was outstanding, in the first minute he made a great save from Rob and he made several more as the game went on. He made an unbelievable save from a free kick in the second half. For me, he was their man of the match.

“But our finishing also wasn’t clinical enough, I thought Chorley were there for the taking but we didn’t take advantage. At key moments in the game, we had big chances but didn’t take them.

“You could tell that Chorley were nervous, I couldn’t fault our effort, but I think we missed a big opportunity. There was nothing between the sides, but the key moments went against us.”

Moors started the game well against the National League strugglers, and nearly took the lead in the opening minutes when Urwin superbly tipped Rob Ramshaw’s header over the bar, and then Ben McKenna fired narrowly over as Moors looked the better side.

Chorley though had a good chance when Chris Holroyd headed straight at Mattie Gould from a good cross by Adam Blakeman, and at the other end Glen Taylor fired over the top off a Carl Magnay cross.

The game was thrown into huge controversy within the space of a minute before half time.

James Roberts ran into the area and went down under a challenge by Courtney Meppen-Walters, claimed a penalty, but the referee waved play on.

Chorley then went down the other end and were awarded a hotly-disputed penalty when Magnay and Ntumba Makkanka collided and Holroyd scored from the spot.

Moors nearly levelled soon after the restart when Roberts got clean through, but Urwin pulled off an excellent save to deny him.

After Gould made a good save to stop Holroyd from scoring, Chorley took a firm grip on the game just before the hour mark, when Alex Newby beat the Moors defensive wall with a well hit free kick from30 yards out.

Again, Urwin denied Moors when he made another excellent save, this time to deny a powerful long range by Taylor, and later in the game he saved another from sub Gavin Cogdon.

To make matters worse, Ainsley was also shown a yellow card for comments made from the technical area.

Team: Gould, Magnay, Mason, Chandler, Buddle, Curtis, Ward (sub Anderson 64), Ramshaw, Taylor, Roberts (sub Boyes 64), McKenna (sub Cogdon 75) Moors’ away game at Brackley, which was postponed on Saturday because of the FA Cup tie, has been re-arranged for Tuesday 5th November.