How do you like your refs in the morning? I think I like mine tech free with just a twist of technology.

The last week has left me conflicted. Is VAR evil? Are referees evil? Is football evil?

It all seemed so simple on Saturday night. VAR was definitely evil, and the officials barely emerged with much credit after the way they used it.

Obviously, everyone feels that way when the video referee intervenes in the other side’s favour. However, the sense that we’d been robbed by the system was difficult to resist.

The dramatic equaliser Lewis Brunt scored to take the game into penalties was scrubbed off after the replay showed he was offside. To be fair, he was, but let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good gripe.

The VAR offside system is broken, and there are serious problems which exhibited themselves over that call, but ultimately Brunt was ahead of the last defender, and the decision was cruel but correct.

The dismissal of George Dobson, though, completely changed the game and ade our first taste of VAR a particularly unpalatable one.

The whole debate around the introduction of technology into officiating was that the game should not be re-refereed; instead, the replays would be used merely to support the officials and eradicate blatant errors.

So why on earth did they intervene over Dobson’s foul on Alejandro Garnacho?

To be clear, if a red card had been shown by the referee on the pitch I’d have considered it to be harsh but not beyond understanding. Dobson wasn’t trying to play the ball; he was taking out an opponent who was bursting into a dangerous position. Therefore, he was taking the risk that the referee would dismiss him.

I’d suggest that around eighty percent of the time the challenge would receive a yellow card rather than a red one. It’s not unbelievable that the greater punishment could be given, but generally it wouldn’t be.

So, my objection to the decision is summed up by one simple sentence: was giving Dobson a yellow card to Dobson a “clear and obvious error”.

Obviously it wasn’t, so why on earth did the officials intervene?

I was furious, and it took me a few days to get over it and start focussing on the more important point that we’d played superbly.

The following day, we suffered a 2-1 semi-final defeat to Cardiff City in the Bute Energy Welsh Cup. With the game scoreless and in the balance, Mariam Mahmood was sent clear on goal but was flagged offside. She wasn’t offside at all.

All of a sudden, I was yearning for an intervention from Stockley Park.

I could take that decision much more easily though, because it was an honest human error made by an official who had just one chance to see the incident and make the call.

That feels okay to me: we all make mistakes and, despite what some try to say, officials aren’t biased. They make genuine decisions based on what they see. Referees and linesmen don’t have agendas like that; they might be wrong sometimes, but there’s no favouritism.

Which brings us on to last Tuesday. The referee’s name was Steve Martin, but I wasn’t laughing.

Here was another official who didn’t have access to replays, but I didn’t feel so charitable this time. The errors weren’t so much of judgement as much as consistency as the bar seemed to be set far higher for one side than the other when it came to judging a foul.

The first Hull goal came from a questionable free kick on the edge of our area: Mr Martin seemed eager to allow physical contact unless it was involving Callum Doyle, who was penalised for the second time in a matter of minutes for a collision which looked accidental.

Worse was to follow three minutes later, although at least there was a consistency to the decision, as Doyle was infuriated by another decision given against him, this time in the area. This was a tight call which the referee may well have got right, and Arthur Okonkwo came to the rescue by saving Joe Gelhardt’s penalty.

Hull would subsequently come close to scoring after a decision worse than any of the calumnies committed against Doyle, though. Having started the second half strongly in search of an equaliser, we were caught on the break after Lewis O’Brien was clobbered but no foul was given, allowing City to surge forwards as our shape was compromised by O’Brien being left in a heap on the ground.

There’s no way the official consciously favoured one side over the other, but it left us leaving the SToK Cae Ras feeling robbed all over again, in a totally different way.

So how do I want my referees? I suppose the bottom line is that I want officials to be consistent. By that, I mean I want them to always give decisions the way I see them. To Wrexham. What could be fairer than that?