Anthony Murray wants match officials to be held more accountable for their decisions following North Wales Crusaders' controversial defeat to Hunslet.

The Cru head coach was left incensed when the match referee awarded Hunslet a point for Cain Southerwood's late drop-goal which had clearly dropped beneath the crossbar.

The drop goal gave Hunslet a one point lead in the match, which ended in a 19-18 defeat for the Cru at the Queensway Stadium.

Reflecting on the decision, Murray said: "It's massively disappointing and frustrating first of all that we're not coming away from the game with at least a point.

"It was clear to me and the players that the ball has dropped well below the bar and I think everyone at the ground saw it too.

"In all my years involved with the game I've never seen a decision like it and I'm puzzled as to how he could have got it so wrong at such an important stage of the game.

"He's only human and everyone makes mistakes, but the fact that the referee has not even consulted with the linesman on something of this magnitude makes the whole thing even more confusing.

"All players and coaches are held accountable in this game for their actions on and off the pitch and we'd like to see the same apply for match officials too.

"This is a decision that has decided the outcome of the game and we feel massively let down. Obviously we'll follow procedure now and include the incident in our written report to the RFL.

"We'll await the outcome of that report, but I've never known the league officials to overturn a decision so it might just be something we have to live with now."

The contentious decision overshadowed an absorbing clash between the sides in searing July temperatures.

In-form Hunslet twice took the lead in the first half before Warren Thompson and Brad Walker replied with tries to make it 12-12 at the break.

There was no separating the sides after the restart either were the sides exchanged tries and penalties, before Southerwood's phantom winning kick.

The bizarre nature of their defeat notwithstanding, Murray was pleased with his side's overall display against one of the league's strongest sides.

"That's what we'd like to be talking about" he added.

"How we matched Hunslet all over the park for 80 minutes and were equal to them for nearly all of the game.

"We put so much into our preparation for the game and we saw a lot of positives in our performance.

"It's a testament to our players that they took everything on board and pushed our completion rate was up at 59 per cent, which is better than recent weeks.

"The only disappointing element for us was that we could have made more of the possession we had in good areas of the pitch. If we'd done that then we might have racked up a few more points and the decision at the end of the game doesn't affect us."