SAM Allardyce has apologised to the players he slammed as "unprofessional' for surrendering two precious promotion points with their latest last-gasp blunder.

The Wanderers' boss was fiercely critical of his team for conceding the 90th minute equaliser in Saturday's derby draw with Manchester United but he has now turned his wrath on officials.

Video evidence clearly shows both David Beckham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer were offside when they fashioned United's goal and, although Allardyce still believes his players contributed to their own downfall, he says the men in black were the villains of the piece.

"It will take me a long time to get over it, especially seeing the linesman with his flag down," he said, echoing his disappointment at the result which looked even worse in the context of the victories West Ham and Birmingham picked up on Sunday.

"It's a great shame because I was heavily criticising my defenders, particularly immediately after the game because of yet another slip up. Then, when I saw it later I had to apologise to them and say it wasn't all their fault.

"Some of the blame lay with us giving the ball away but obviously the vast majority of the blame lies with the linesman who unfortunately didn't give the correct decision. There's no shadow of a doubt that both players were offside and we shouldn't have been left with a 1-1 draw.

"We'd have seen the game out for a famous victory in this club's history, doing the double over Manchester United."

Action replays supported Allardyce'sclaimthatWanderers

were denied a penalty when Ivan Campo was thrown to the ground by John O'Shea. "I needed to get my point over (to the players) that they were crucifying themselves," he explained, "but certainly in some cases, officials are adding to that. Not only was the offside there for everybody to see but there was that blatant incident when O'Shea wrestled Ivan to the ground. Mr D'Urso's position was perfect.

"I don't know why they can't make the right decisions. It's a massive penalty for us when you look at the points we've thrown away and the points we've not gained by referees giving right decisions. It proves that these things don't even themselves out any more."