Westmeath manager Dermot McCabe was left fuming after a controversial last-gasp goal handed fierce rivals Meath victory when the sides met at TEG Cusack Park.
A goal from Conor Duke with the very last kick of the game won the day for Meath, as they edged to a 3-14 to 1-17 victory.
The result keeps up Meath's drive for promotion from Division 2 while Westmeath, who shot 12 wides to their opponents' four, remain pointless despite several close shaves in their campaign to date.
However after full-time, a clearly frustrated McCabe insisted that Duke’s goal should not have stood and that it was scored after the allotted time of 70 minutes.
The Westmeath boss also suggested that an advantage was not played in full before Meath were awarded a free kick which led to that goal.
"I would have felt that the rule is the rule, when the hooter goes on 70 and you score it on 70:03, then it's not a goal.
"The second point is that we had an arm up, the advantage is meant to go on for 10 seconds, but three seconds later, there was a free out.
"I'm sure there'll be reasons, I'm sure the FRC will get around to it and they'll apologize or something like that tonight."
While he was unable to hide his frustration at the decisions that went against his side, McCabe insisted that he holds no ill-will against referee Barry Judge.
The Westmeath boss believes that the rule changes from the Football Review Committee has left referees in an impossible position.
"It's really difficult for the ref," he said. "I said that it's going to be hugely difficult for the ref, that they have hundreds of extra decisions.
"There was a huge Meath support here, I couldn't hear myself talk and it was impossible to hear the hooter.
"But that's the system and that's it. It's not that these weren't identified as problems before thing started.
"I wouldn't really blame anyone, but I do feel that probably Westmeath will be brushed off and if maybe it was another team there might be a little bit of an uproar about it."
While the decisions appeared to go in his favour today, Meath manager Robbie Brennan also expressed serious concern about the FRC rule changes.
Brennan pointed to a lack of consistency on how the changes are being implemented and he feels that players, managers and referees are being left in a position where they don’t know what to expect from week to week.
"They’re simply not being implemented at every ground," Brennan said. "Sometimes there's hooters, sometimes there’s not. That clock, you’re talking about a rule where there's a clock at end of the pitch [only].
"I think that's the first game we've played this year where the referee has had the foam to point where to where the free kick is from. All the other matches, we didn't have that.
"To me, it’s really frustrating what they're doing with all the rules and how much they're trying to change the game. It wasn't that bad that it needed to be changed to that stage, so I’m finding it frustrating at the moment.
"If you're watching Armagh v Dublin last night and the bit of pressure put on Peter [Canavan], it certainly sounds like there's some tweaks coming and it's mind-boggling. They've lost a run of themselves at this stage. It's not what the game is meant to be."
