Northwich Victoria manager Dino Maamria saw his side draw level against Cambridge United at the Abbey on Saturday but then fall victim to Scott Rendell's 79th minute winner.

With only three points to their name and no points at all on their travels this season, the Vics gave United a few scares before eventually succumbing when young sub Robbie Willmott hared down the wing and crossed for Rendell to score his second of the game.

"That's how we've been playing in the last few weeks and the level of performance rose in today's performance, so I felt we were robbed of what the performance deserved," he said afterwards.

"I thought we played the better football and dominated for long periods, certainly in the middle of the park where we were first for nearly every ball. We knew how Cambridge would play and set out to stop them going forward, and in keeping our shape we made them look very predictable and it looked like there was only going to be one winner and that was us."

The Tunisian-born player-manager, who includes Doncaster, Southport and Stevenage among his former clubs, burst onto the pitch to protest about an incident just before United scored the 40th minute opener, and explained, "It's a cliché, but when you are at the bottom of the league things don't tend to go for you and this was the case today with the decision today that cost us the game.

"Just before Cambridge's first goal, Lee Steele went forward and the ball was blocked by Mark Peters using both hands. The referee should have stopped the game and given us a free kick but he didn't, and from that incident Cambridge broke away and scored the first goal.

"It is very frustrating when you work so hard, bringing the players together to play to the level they did today, working on the training ground about the opposition and what we have to do, and then a mistake like that will cost us the game. The referee has to have a look at himself. All we are asking for is an apology, to say he got it wrong, and I tried to speak to him at half-time and he wasn't interested and that just frustrates even more.

"But back to the football, I can't fault my players," he added. "Nine times out of ten they won their challenges. We won't resort to kick and rush. The players are too good for that and are capable of playing good football, we just need a little belief. It was only at the end that Cambridge had chances to put the game beyond us and that was when we were chasing an equaliser leaving spaces at the back."

Maamria also praised the 35 away supporters in the crowd of 4,406, saying, "I feel the team didn't let any of our great group of supporters down and I would like to personally thank every one of them who came to today's game. They made a great deal of noise compared to the large home support and hopefully they - like my players - will get what they deserve and soon.

"We have a good base to build on and hopefully that first win will come next week against Rushden. Hopefully the performance gave them some respite from what's happening off the pitch and that's all we can do. We can only change things on the pitch and we will continue to work as hard as we can to do that."

Closing with his thoughts about United, Maamria commented, "Cambridge have the heart, belief and the organisational skills to go on to do big things this season, and in Jimmy Quinn they have a manager who has proved himself at this level and higher, and in Alan Lewer you have a managerial team second to none in this division.

"There is a good chance that when you visit us at the" end of the season you could well be celebrating."

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