West Ham United boss Slaven Bilic acknowledged his side's 2-2 draw with FC Astra Giurgiu in the Europa League third qualifying round was a bad result but denied swearing at referee Adrian Jaccottet as he was sent off.
James Collins' red card proved to be the turning point in the first leg tie, as with the Hammers leading 2-0 the Welsh centre-back was given a second booking for a professional foul.
Prior to that Enner Valencia and Mauro Zarate had given the east Londoners a 2-0 advantage shortly after half time.
But a man down, Bilic's side crumbled and Fernando Boldrin crashed home from 25 yards before debutant Angelo Ogbonna put past his own keeper to tie the score up at 2-2.
The night went from bad to worse when Bilic was sent to the stands late on and speaking afterwards, the Croatian pulled no punches in his assessment of the match.
He told the club's website: "At 2-2 it's a bad result for us and we're not happy.
"Add the injuries to Joey (O'Brien), which hopefully doesn’t look too bad, and Enner (Valencia), which we don’t know until Friday when he has a scan but it doesn’t look good, and the frustration is bigger.
“We played good and created chances and were dangerous and lively and nice to watch, but we should defend better as a unit after Ginge (James Collins) went off.”
Explaining his own dismissal, the former Besiktas and Croatia boss said: “The situation was I was not happy with his decision.
"If they sent Collins off, then they should have booked the player [Valerica Gaman] for his foul on Dimitri (Payet). I did not swear, definitely, but I just asked why and he sent me off.”
The second leg in Romania comes three days before the Hammers are due to kick off their Premier League campaign at Arsenal on Sunday, August 9.
And for Bilic, that will mean the unenviable task of balancing his squad to compete on two fronts with the trip to Giurgiu totalling 1,200 miles there and back.
“It was the same plan, no matter what the result was, that the majority of the players who will start against Arsenal will not participate in that game,” he explained.
“We would like to do both, but the Premier League was and is the priority for us.”
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