SAM Allardyce was proud to see his players produce a performance of character and delighted in seeing Michael Ricketts re-affirm his position as one of the Premiership's most feared strikers but he had plenty to complain about after seeing Wanderers lose their unbeaten away record at Villa Park.

He criticised their passing, highlighted missed chances and acknowledged Villa as the better side.

But once again the most stinging criticism was for the man in black.

The Reebok boss accepted that a point gained might not have been a true reflection of the game but he was furious with Blackburn referee, Eddie Wolstenholme, for awarding the penalty that left his players a mountain to climb and for ignoring Alan Wright's bone-crunching late tackle on Dean Holdsworth.

"I was really frustrated with the way the referee officiated the game," he said, highlighting events beyond his team's control that once again tipped the balance at a crucial point in a big game.

Having held a rampant Villa at 1-1 until the 42nd minute, Wanderers went in 2-1 down at half time after conceding a second to Darius Vassell and found themselves trailing 3-1 within two minutes of the restart when Juan Pablo Angel got his second of the game from a penalty awarded for a push on Moustapha Hadji by Ricardo Gardner.

"Ricardo brushed Hadji at the most," Allardyce argued, drawing a comparison with the penalty Wanderers were denied at Old Trafford when Juan Veron sent Per Frandsen flying.

"It was an innocuous challenge by Ricardo, if at all, but it meant we'd gone from 1-1 to 3-1 down in just four or five minutes either side of half time and that was too much to come back from.

"Then near the end we saw Alan Wright go straight through on Dean Holdsworth on the edge of the box and the referee said it was just a collision of two bodies. It was a blatant foul and with Villa being on the back foot and the likes of Per Frandsen, who's scored two or three goals off set-plays this year, it could have made all the difference.

"It's extremely disappointing. Major decisions are costing us an awful lot."

Despite his frustration with officialdom, Allardyce did not begrudge Villa the three points, admitting that after Ricketts had stunned them with his opening goal inside 90 seconds, John Gregory's side were stung into some impressive action.

"It was a huge disappointment to lose our unbeaten away record," he admitted, "and I'm not saying we deserved to draw the game because Villa were very, very good for long periods and we were not as good, certainly not passing the ball, as we were last week (at Old Trafford). And we can't afford to concede sloppy goals like we did on the set play for the first one.

"That got Villa going and we really needed to hang in there until half time so that we could reorganise. But we went in 2-1 down, although Michael did have a chance to make it 2-2 with almost the last kick of the first half.

"It pleased me to see when we clawed our way back and got Villa on the back foot we had the opportunity to score a goal or two and when we did score we had them rocking.

Fair play to Villa because between the first 15 minutes and the last 15 minutes they were very good and made it difficult for us to cope at times.

"If we'd got a draw, we might have got something we didn't deserve but we showed the old fighting spirit in the way we took the game to them. Michael headed one over the bar, Gudni (Bergsson) didn't quite get there with the chance he had and there were a couple of good saves by Schmeichel."

The manager reserved judgment on Steve Banks' positioning for the first Villa goal, saying of the replacement for the suspended Jussi Jaaskelainen: "I'm not too sure about how many bodies were around him so I would have to see the video but he made excellent saves and it was nice to see him make his Premiership debut."

He also explained his reasons for selecting Djibril Diawara ahead of Colin Hendry in the absence of the suspended Mike Whitlow: "Djibril played exceptionally well at Leeds in the reserves and he got the shout over a very, very disappointed and very unlucky Colin Hendry.

"For most of the game, Djibril did a very good job."