Liversedge dropped two home points which could prove crucial later in the season as they slugged out a draw with Arnold Town in a game that was not a good advert for the Northern Counties East Premier Division.

The sides are expected to be promotion rivals, if not title contenders, if the prophets are to be believed. However, the teams were at a disadvantage right from the start as the game was never going to be allowed to flow by an official who made some perplexing decisions.

Bizarrely it could have ended goalless had it not been for Rotherham referee Graham Mellor. Sedge took the lead with a controversial penalty and Arnold drew level three minutes into stoppage time after a throw-in was given the wrong way.

The home side will feel the more aggrieved by the mishandling because it was they who created the best chances. They had a strike that would have taken them into a two-goal lead ruled out for offside.

Arnold did pinch a point due to the ineptitude of the officials but even they will be raising questions. Yellow cards were brandished in the general direction of their players with little or no explanation.

There were no management or communication skills on display and no firm line taken when necessary. Bookings were handed out for remarks made to other players, while people injured in questionable challenges were invited to get up and get on with it - even the ones who, despite treatment, were substituted because of the injuries they incurred in badly-timed tackles.

"The referee and his assistants ruined a game before it even had a chance to get going and I don't have to criticise them," said Sedge boss Eugene Lacy, himself a qualified referee.

"The local press were here, two refereeing assessors were here, an official from the West Riding County FA was in attendance and a Football League official who used to do our league was in the crowd.

"I spoke to them all after the game and not one of them had a good word to say about the way the game had been handled. People might now start to believe I haven't got Liversedge-tinted glasses on when I make comments like the ref cost us points or ruined the game.

"I have been urged not to criticise a

fellow official and, in fact, get behind them to show a united front. How can I support the one that was in charge of this game? I literally cannot defend him. It would make me as bad as him."

Mellor got off to a bad start as, six

minutes into the game, he failed to see the late challenge that left Sedge centre back Andy Markham on the rock-solid surface. Following minutes of treatment he was substituted and finished the afternoon in hospital with badly-damaged

ligaments.

Midway through the first half the referee stopped the game and handed a yellow card to Arnold's Karl Rose when it appeared Sedge's Craig Farrand had obstructed him as the home side tried to break up an attack.

Just after the half-hour mark, Sedge keeper Kyle Sutcliffe made a double save after Arnold striker Ben Hutchinson raced through from a seemingly offside position. Sutcliffe saved the initial strike with his feet and dived to turn Scott Huckerby's follow-up shot for a corner.

Visiting keeper Dave McCarthy was also busy in the goalless first half as he saved from John Borland, Chris Walton and his own centre back Chris Peet.

He turned a header goalwards trying to cut out a cross from Wayne Crossley, who came on following Markham's early exit.

Just four minutes into the second half, Sedge striker Richard Marshall broke through and went to ground. Nick Matthews pleaded that he had played the ball but the penalty was awarded and Danny Lowe tucked it away.

Sedge should have increased their lead from a 66th-minute corner. Gareth Hamlet headed against the bar, with McCarthy reaching back Chris Walton also floated a header over him that came back off the woodwork and as Hamlet nodded the rebound home he was flagged offside.

When Lowe got a double ricochet off an opponent's shin deep in Arnold's half in the 93rd minute of the game, he grabbed the ball to take the resulting throw-in. The officials disagreed and Arnold gained possession.

Huckerby broke down the right flank, his cross to the far side of the area was neatly controlled and played back into the six-yard box, where substitute Seb Darling poked it over the line from close range to equalise.