ANDY Preece refused to blame the referee after watching his team concede five goals against Droylsden for the second time this season.

Instead the Northwich Victoria manager pointed to the hosts’ poor first half performance as the reason they lost their first match of 2010.

“They hurt us,” he said.

“I think the way we started the game set the tone for what followed and we deserved to be two-goals down at half time."

Preece ditched his preferred back three in favour of a more familiar line of four after Neil Prince and Shaun Whalley put the Bloods 2-0 up inside quarter of an hour.

It halted the visitors’ momentum until the interval.

He said: “I got stuck into the players at half time because I felt we had let them bully us a little bit.

“I also told them to believe in themselves and not to think the game was up.”

Indeed, he threw on top scorer Mark Danks and Jamie Vermiglio to instant effect as the pair combined to halve Vics’ arrears in inside three minutes.

It was only then that referee Simon Bennett made a call Preece felt cost his team any chance of completing a remarkable comeback.

“The lads went out fired up and the outcome could have been so different,” he added.

“I felt we did really well for 20 minutes or so and they were struggling to live with us so to not get what was a stone wall penalty is hard to take.

“We were in the ascendancy and that might have put us in a position to go on and win the game.”

Bennett waved away Jimmy Spencer’s appeal for a spot kick after Droylsden stopper Mike Byrom floored him inside the penalty area.

The Staffordshire official then did not whistle for what Preece felt was a foul on Mat Bailey in the build-up to the Bloods’ third goal.

To compound matters, Ryan Clarke was sent off for bringing down Whalley as he raced onto the loose ball.

“Mat Bailey was fouled,” said Preece.

“That’s before you get on to the fact that Ryan Clarke took the ball. What is he meant to do? Let their guy go on and score?

“Then for the last goal Junior Brown was shoved over by their player on the touchline. Why would he just go to ground there?

“It’s frustrating because we went 5-1 down from being denied a penalty to make it 2-2. That makes it look like we’ve had another hiding [off them].”