DAVID Flitcroft was raging at referee Darren Bond following Bury's 3-1 FA Cup defeat at home to Hull on Saturday, claiming two key second-half decisions swung the tie in the visitors' favour.

He believes Bond lacked the "Golden Eye" needed to spot Ryan Lowe's well-timed run and finish in the 56th minute, which would have tied the scores at 1-1, instead ruling out the goal for offside.

And there was no "Quantum of Solace" for the Bury boss a minute later when the man-in-the-middle pointed straight to the spot after Sone Aluko went down in the box under pressure from Reece Brown.

Those two crucial decisions left Flitcroft seething after the game.

“You get a football instinct of things,” he said. “Lowe has checked his run and he is not offside. I have seen it again and he is not offside.

“And then you go up the pitch and Aluko dives, a million per-cent, dives over Reece Brown's leg, a million per-cent.

"He's gone down soft, jumps on the floor and won a penalty.

“We rallied at stages of the game but you want your officials to come and do their job and do their work.

"I really had an instinct on those two decisions but now I have seen them it is cast iron.

“I'm taking nothing away from Steve Bruce and the work he has done.

“It would have been nice to have been on a level playing field and I don't think we got that.

“(What we got was) two minutes of madness, of unprofessional madness from the officials.”

The Bury boss was really optimistic heading into the game, expecting his opposite number Bruce to shuffle his pack and give the home side an opportunity.

But even after making 11 changes, the side put out by the former Manchester United defender still contained nine players with Premier League experience and that was the difference on the day.

“We got the team selection and you think that you've got a chance with the changes that Steve has made," he added.

"We talked about that in the week (leading up to the game) and again before the game.

“The lads went after them and really looked quite imposing first half without getting a guilt-edged chance.

But started strongly but fell behind on 15 minutes when David Meyler's shot was parried into the path of on-loan Arsenal forward Chuba Akpom, who tucked away the first of a hat-trick on the day.

"We came out of the traps, we had to, but the first goal was not tracked," added Flitcroft.

"You sometimes get away with that at League Two or League One, but Meyler has got that quality and obviously Akpom we have not tracked – and 99 per cent tracking leads to 100 per cent failure.

“If you don't track these top players then they will do you, and they did.

“So I am disappointed with the first goal, but we never really looked like conceding after that.”

Despite continuing to take the game to Hull, the two minutes of madness from the referee, as Flitcroft described it, left them with a mountain to climb and after Akpom tucked away the penalty he picked Bury off again before Craig Jones scored a late consolation for the Shaker.

They wasted a number of chances to score against Hull on the day, a fact made all the more frustrating with top goalscorer Leon Clarke ruled out with food poisoning,

The forward missed training on Thursday and Friday in the hope of making a full recovery, but Flitcroft said Saturday's tie came a little too soon.

“I think it was a big loss," he said. "He is obviously the talisman of our season and he got food poisoning on Wednesday and he was not able to recover.

“He was not able to get anything in and keep anything down so Thursday and Friday Clarke stayed away from the club and I spoke to him early on Saturday morning and he said he felt weak.

“We weren't going to risk him or get him up near the lads, it is just one of those things, it happens.”