North End lost out to Mexican Premier League side Monterry in an ill-tempered pre-season friendly that saw both sides end the game with ten men, with Danny Pugh seeing red for North End five minutes before the interval.

North End looked good against their much vaunted opposition and had their chances in the game, but some very poor refereeing and some cynical foul play from the Mexican's didn't make it easy for the Lilywhites.

In the new all-red away strip North End worked extremely hard in the warm Sacramento evening and a number of players got 90 minutes, or close to, under their belts.

9,605 fans were inside the Raley Field Baseball stadium, which had been converted into a 'soccer ground' for the evening and the game started brightly with Wayne Henderson tipping over from $5m Chilean international striker Humberto Suazo on eight minutes.

Suazo looked the best player in the Monterrey side as the ball went to him at every opportunity and a minute later Henderson was called on again to deny him low at the foot of his right hand post. After this point in the first half it was all North End and melees!

Simon Whaley saw a snap shot go just wide of the right hand upright in the 20th minutes, before Youl Mawene, Sean St.Ledger and Kevin Nicholls were all booked after a series of fouls and fracas.

But it was North End who kept cool heads and carved out the best chance of the first half in the 25th minute. Simon Whaley picked the ball up on the right hand side and pulled the ball back to the edge of the six yard box where Karl Hawley connected with his right foot only to see Martinez in the Mexican side's goal palm the ball away with a reflex dive.

Then the game's talking point. Danny Pugh was fouled on the left hand side and it resulted in another group 'get together' with the Mexican keeper running 80 yards to get involved. Arms were flailing and eventually the referee brandished a red card against Danny Pugh and Arellano of Monterrey.

The half finished with another ill-tempered incident and at stages you weren't sure if the referee had stopped the match! At the break Manager Paul Simpson replaced Simon Whaley and Karl Hawley with Patrick Agyemang and Chris Sedgwick and after the break North End continued to look the better side.

Patrick Agyemang followed on his good form from Seattle and drove into the box past two defenders on 52 minutes, but the keeper came out and smothered at his feet and then Neil Mellor got the ball past the keeper, but a defender cleared just before the former Liverpool striker could give North End the lead.

But against the run of play and from nothing the $5m man Suazo proved his value with a curling right foot effort from the left hand corner of the box past Wayne Henderson and into the top right hand corner on the hour mark.

The 9,605 crowd who had mostly come to see the Mexican side went wild with their cheerstix - yes they had those here too! The game continued in the same vein as before the goal with North End being kicked around and two more Mexican's were booked.

North End also continued to have the better of the play and Chris Sedgwick and Neil Mellor between them almost grabbed a deserved equaliser as Martinez dropped a snap shot and it almost rolled into the net, but the Monterrey keeper recovered just in time to smother it.

Neil Mellor was replaced by Brett Ormerod, Liam Chilvers came on for Sean St. Ledger and Billy Jones replaced Youl Mawene as birthday-boy and Manager Paul Simpson rang the changes.

North End were awarded a free kick with four minutes left and it was a great opportunity to get what would have been a deserved goal. A clever routine was worked and Graham Alexander fed the ball to Callum Davidson. He hit a rasping daisy-cutter from 25 yards out, but it whistled just past the left ahdn post.

Callum was booked in the closing stages and in injury time the Mexican's grabbed an undeserved second, what proved to be the final action of the game, Suazo again involved playing it to Abbarado for a close range finish.

The game had been another good work-out and the Manager will have been delighted Callum Davidson and Kevin Nicholls were two of the players to get 90 minutes under their belts and the team now move on to Portland for the final leg of their USA Tour.

PNE line-up: Henderson, Alexander (Capt), Hill, St. Ledger (Chilvers, 72), Mawene (Jones, 84); Whaley (Agyemang, 46), Pugh, Nicholls, Davidson; Mellor (Ormerod, 67), Hawley (Sedgwick, 46). Subs not used: C Neal, L Neal.

Monterrey line-up: C Martinez, D Ramirez, E Arevalo, L Perez, A Fernandez, Y Uthurralde, F Suazo, W Erviti, D Urdaz, F Baloy, J Arrellano. Subs: J Urozco, S Meza, P Urbarra, A Albarado, C Uchoa, J Moralez, Y Rubirosa, T Banda, P Serafin, B Serrato, M Perez.

Attendance: 9,605