Irvine Meadow co-boss Colin Spence was left “disappointed” by his side’s first league defeat of the season and believes the referee had a “shocker” as his side lost 2-1 to Hurlford United at Meadow Park.

The visitors took the lead after 10 minutes before Meadow looked to have equalised midway through the first-half but the referee gave a foul against the home side much to the frustration of Spence.

He told the Times: “It was a shocker of a decision. I could not believe what I was seeing – it was a terrible decision.

“I have felt the last couple of weeks we have not had a decision go our way with the two red cards at Largs very harsh and now this.

“It was a poor performance from the referee. How that was not a goal I’ll never know.

“You can never say the decision cost us the game but it had a big say in it.

“Hopefully, these things even themselves out because we have not had a decision go in our favour yet.”

Despite the disallowed goal, Meadow eventually got an equaliser early in the second-half thanks to Connor Boyd.

However, with just over 15minutes to go Chris McKnight got Hurlford’s second and what proved to be the winner.

Spence was left disappointed not to have taken something from the game.

He said: “I was really disappointed with the way we conceded the second goal. Hurlford took a quick free-kick and we gave the man six yards of space and that’s the biggest disappointment as that’s been unlike us recently.

“It was a game that could have swung either way and at 1-1 I thought we looked the likelier to get a winner so not to take anything from the game is very frustrating.

“For me the difference was Hurlford’s experience. They were clever, they knew how to buy fouls, slow the game down, break it up and we were more naive and that was what separated the sides. They played with an old head and we never.

“I felt we were too honest and you will not win anything if you are the nice team.”

This weekend Meadow play Broxburn away in the SoccerShop Challenge Cup.