NEAL ARDLEY felt 'aggrieved' after York City were denied an important three points after Ebbsfleet goalkeeper Mark Cousins' netted a stoppage time equaliser. 

Cousins' goal cancelled out Lenell John-Lewis' early opener at the LNER Community Stadium, with York remaining clear of the Vanarama National League relegation zone despite missing out on three points. 

Players collided following the full-time whistle with referee John Mulligan after an important decision on a throw-in had gone against York, with Ardley admitting that he felt for his players after the final whistle.

“Part of me feels for the lads because they’ve done 95 minutes of graft work, putting everything in to try and keep the clean sheet to win the game. Part of me obviously feels aggrieved," Ardley admitted.

"When a player runs off and grabs the ball, and then hands it to your player, that should tell the ref everything that you need to know.

"But then from that moment on, they end up with a corner, so the first part wasn’t right.

"When a goalie comes up, and I’ve just said this to the lads, they put everyone on our 'keeper and are going to put it under the crossbar with a swirling wind, you’ve got to get yourselves and all of our best headers into that area.

You’ve got a ‘keeper in there and big lads in there, you’ve got to do your jobs, and that’s why we’ve dropped two points.

"You can’t blame the ref, they’re going to moan that the first one was a foul on them and we’re going to moan that the referee should never have given that and that we should see our jobs through to the 96th minute. 

“Regardless of what the ref has got confused with, he’s made that decision, there is no linesman there or fourth official.

"When their man runs and grabs the ball and hands it back to our player, it needs a little bit of common sense. 

“We have to take it, we’ve got another game in three days that’s going to be extremely tough, so we’ve got to make sure that mentally get over the disappointment of this and get over that one."

Ardley also commented on the post-match brawl between both sides, with the manager being unaware as to who had been shown a red card following the full-time whistle.

I’ve got no idea (on the red card) so I’ll have to look at that.

“It’s an emotional sport, we can have a go at the players for playing with no passion or emotion and then  we can have a go at them for showing too much emotion in the end.

"I think everybody was angry with the ref, and rightly so, but I was trying to get them away because all I could see was bookings and to get our players away.

"Their players were mouthing off at the same time, but they’ll be angry with the foul on their players for the first goal.

"You’re not allowed to go up to the ref and say anything, you can’t really do it, I’ll go and have a chat with him when I’m allowed in.

"You’ve got to put this one to bed now and move on to the next one."