​The frantic finale to Saturday's First Division game between Aston Villa and Stoke left Shropshire referee Bert Newsome as the villain of the piece and Stoke manager Alan Durban feeling that he and his team were very much the injured parties.

Durban, convinced that linesman Barrett was flagging for offside against Swain just before the full back put the ball in the Stoke net in the 88th minute, was incensed when Newsome awarded a penalty for a foul by Ray Evans instead.

Allan Evans converted to give Villa a 2-1 victory and Durban was not particularly happy with the referee's decision to dismiss centre-half Smith for "foul and abusive language" in the 90th minute of a tough tackling, bruising game.

Newsome, whose control over the proceedings was virtually non-existent, might have been better advised to send himself off and a lot earlier.

But he did explain that his linesman was signalling a penalty and not the offside that Durban wanted to believe.

"The Villa player had his shirt pulled just outside the box but he quickly regained his momentum and played the advantage. When it happened again, this time inside the area, I had to take more positive action even though he eventually got in his shot," he said.

None of which went down very with Durban. "It's times like this when I feel like packing up football altogether" he said.

"When I work hard all week at my profession and then see some of these people come on to a pitch on Saturday and ruin all my efforts I just want to get out. It is my profession but it is their hobby.

"But Smith was sent off for telling the referee exactly what he thought of him and his refereeing it is something I cannot condone but I do understand for I felt exactly the same way."

Experiment

There can be little sympathy for Smith, however, for the big defender spent most of the rainy afternoon experimenting with different methods of bringing down his opponents from behind.

The fact that he was allowed to get away with it for so long probably encouraged him and when he was eventually booked in the 52nd minute it was, almost predictably, after one of his few clean tackles of the game.

Scott had shaken Villa by flicking a Johnson corner between the near post and goalkeeper Rimmer in the 11th minute and it took a superb 25-year drive by Mortimer to level the scores 12 minutes later.

Then the battle commenced and as Villa manager Ron Saunders said: "It was always going to be quite a fight in conditions which were a great leveller. All 22 players got on with the job and battled hard."