Referee Darren Handley's display was 'incredible', says Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver following Tranmere Rovers loss

The Lancashire-based official dished out one harsh and one ridiculous yellow card to Sulphurites striker Luke Armstrong in the space of two first-half minutes, leaving the visitors with 10 men for more than an hour of Tuesday night's contest.

Town made it to half-time at 0-0, but fell behind shortly after the resumption when Lewis Warrington broke the deadlock.

Still very much in the contest at that stage, Weaver's men were then left facing a mountain to climb when Handley saw fit to award Rovers a 63rd-minute penalty for Jack Muldoon's alleged shirt pull on Peter Clarke.

Kane Hemmings converted from the spot, and although Harrogate rallied and went on to create a number of decent opportunities to get themselves back in the contest, they left Prenton Park with nothing to show for their efforts.

"That is an incredible performance by the referee, taking the game out of our control," Weaver reflected.

"Both bookings for Luke are hard to fathom. I don't think anybody in the stadium other than the referee had a clue what was going on.

"Luke has actually been grabbed by the throat and dragged over the defender's body and ended up getting a second yellow. I've seen both incidents on video already and it is just unfathomable. It's the strangest night of football I've ever seen, ever witnessed.

"The penalty later on, honestly. Look at the video. The lad has just thrown himself to the floor next to Jack Muldoon and they've gone on the crowd's noise. This is the situation, it's going against us.

"It's very frustrating, I thought that the lads deserved to be the main talking point because they performed with guile, with energy. I thought that they were excellent."

Having seen fit to book Town's 13-goal top-scorer for catching Clarke just past the midway point of the opening period, Handley then made an even worse decision moments later.

Armstrong and Clarke competed for the ball in the air, with the Rovers defender appearing to get his opponent in a headlock in the process of pulling him to the ground. As the Harrogate forward got to his feet, he was given his marching orders.

It is not the first time this season that the Sulphurites have found themselves on the wrong end of some woeful officiating.

Among the stand-out moments are James Oldham's decision to disallow a George Thomson 'goal' direct from a corner during October's 3-2 loss at Hartlepool United for a foul on Jonathan Mitchell, despite there being nobody within touching distance of the home custodian.

Then, with Town leading 2-0 away at Exeter City last month, Brett Huxtable gave the Grecians a spot-kick following a challenge by Warren Burrell in which he clearly played the ball. Harrogate went on to lose that match 4-3.

"No doubt we will get another apology. We've had seven or eight already from the officials this season and we'll have another couple tonight," Weaver continued.

"He was just a rabbit in the headlights, there was nothing coming back, but he'll see it himself. And, these days, that video will go everywhere because people will just be astounded.

"This is a massive part of my life and Paul Thirlwell's life. We are outnumbered in staff, outnumbered in the stands and it feels as if we are outnumbered on the pitch sometimes when they've got 12 and we have got 11.

"It is hard to bear because it has cost us a lot of points this year."

Tuesday night's defeat was Town's third on the bounce and sees them drop to 16th in the League Two standings.