FRUSTRATED Lee Bradbury admitted he had feared for club captain Warren Cummings after pointing the finger at referee Iain Williamson.

Cummings was left with nasty leg wounds as Cherries suffered a controversial fourth straight home League One loss at the hands of Hartlepool on Saturday.

Boss Bradbury was fuming after claiming that official Williamson had contributed to Cherries’ stormy 2-1 reverse by failing to dismiss two Pools players.

Steven Gregory and Nolberto Solano traded superb first-half goals before Bradbury felt Pools should have been reduced to 10 men just after the hour mark.

Paul Murray, already on a yellow card, escaped a second caution after tripping Marc Pugh and was promptly substituted by visiting manager Mick Wadsworth.

Tempers then flared again when left-back Cummings was sent sprawling to the turf in agony following a challenge from fellow substitute Andy Monkhouse.

The home crowd, players and bench were seething when Monkhouse received a yellow card, rather than his marching orders And the mood got no better when unbeaten Hartlepool struck a late winner thanks to Evan Horwood’s wonder goal.

Bradbury said: “We played well enough to win the game but, unfortunately, some of it was out of our hands.”

Asked if he was referring to the Cummings incident, he replied: “Yes, that one and another one when Marc Pugh was running through and Paul Murray had already been booked. If he had not been on a caution, I felt he would have given him a yellow card.

“We are just looking for some consistency, as managers. Sometimes, you are on the positive end of those decisions and, other times, it drives you mad when you are not.

“Warren has got three holes in his shin – through his shin pad. In my eyes – I was stood 20 yards away from it – it was a red card.

“I went in to see the referee but he did not think he had made any mistakes. It is there to be looked at.

“I feared for Warren at first because it was the leg he broke a few years ago. I was disappointed with the referee.”

Cummings posted a picture of his injury on social networking website Twitter and commented: “Thanks for all messages! I’m all good...late tackle with no intent but still a red I think.”

Pools boss Wadsworth, whose in-form side climbed to third in the table, defended Monkhouse. He told the media: “I give the referee great credit because a lot of them would have bottled it at the end.

“I think fairness was done and I didn’t think it was a sending-off offence by any stretch of the imagination. It was a loose ball and both players went for it. Andy got there a little late but it wasn’t nasty.

“I don’t like talking about that anyway. I prefer to talk about us.”