INCONSISTENT, poor and disruptive and that just describes the referee's performance at Woodmarsh on Wednesday night.

Kevin Barnett stole the show as his whistle-happy antics spoiled what promised to be an enthralling Floodlight Cup semi final first leg.

Neither side were able to gain any momentum as it seemed as though Mr Barnett was purely intent on drawing the attention on himself.

His booking of Trowbridge captain Ricky Trott, for apparently just standing up, summed up his display while he declined to produce his yellow card for the worst tackles of the game.

Both Waleed Bakali and Gordon Saunderson were forced to limp out of the proceedings after robust challenges, both of which went unpunished, while he also failed to spot a clear handball by an Almondsbury player in his own penalty area.

It was the same for both sides though as he contrived to miss a stray elbow from Trowbridge's Luke Smith, which should have resulted in a red card, and also waved away another obvious penalty claim that would have given the visitors the chance to take an early lead.

The match was not a lot better than Mr Barnett's performance as, with light snow falling, the undoubted highlight was a cup of hot tea at half time. In a first half littered with errors, striker Dave Percival had Trowbridge's best chances but on two minutes his first touch let him down when through on goal, while on 35 minutes he drove a shot wide.

Almondsbury's Tony Bennet should have been awarded a penalty on nine minutes when Bakali dragged him down and Philip Walsh saw his 25 yard free kick hit the post.

The hosts were forced to withdraw Bakali shortly before half-time after he was on the end of a lunge by Mark Brooker, with youngster Matt Cooper replacing him. It could have got worse for Trowbridge on the stroke of half-time when Smith struck Bennet with his elbow but it went unnoticed. After the break, Trowbridge, a league below their opponents, upped their game and proceeded to dominate the next 45 minutes.

Adam Nunn went close to giving them the lead on 50 minutes when curled a shot just wide of the far post and shortly after Dave Mitchell headed over from close range.

Percival, Smith and Mitchell all went close to giving their side the lead but in the last action of the game goalkeeper Adam Sheppard spared Trowbridge's blushes by blocking a shot from Craig Davidge.

The Bees will travel to Almondsbury in two weeks' time for the second leg.