Outmuscled or treated unfairly?

To the weald of Kent on a mild winter's afternoon and a curious Reserve team fixture pitting a young home team against an away team that impressed immediately as being physically imposing and no softies. "This lot look like their first team," I thought to myself  as we shook hands for the Respect handshake. And sure enough the visitors, from the Thames estuary, immediately imposed a physical dominance that lasted for 90 minutes and left the home team feeling battered and resentful.

The home side's complaints started from the kick off and grew in volume. Tackles were late, studs were showing, feet were flying, according to the home team. Trouble is, I wasn't seeing any of it. To my eyes, the challenges were hard, occasionally crunching, but fair. "You're not giving us anything Ref," was the common refrain.
By the end of the first half, the visitors were cruising, 3-0 up. They were clearly pretty grizzled veterans and capable of winding up the young home players out of my earshot, so it was a couple of the home players who ended up in my book for dissent.
I'm usually the first to clamp down on fouls and tend to the strict side, but I honestly couldn't fault the away team, even though the complaints of the home team continued beyond the final whistle and a 4-0 scoreline. I even questioned myself as I drove home, but came to the conclusion that apart from one challenge in which studs were showing, I couldn't really think of an incident where I had got it badly wrong.