This was a game that for the outsiders looking in will just be seen as another loss but that wasn’t the story .

We matched fully our opponents throughout and I thought half an hour in they had run out of ideas . We were more threatening going forward putting a number of challenging crosses into the box and but for a goal line clearance right on half time we would have had the lead . They will point to an earlier penalty appeal that may have had some merit based on player reaction but other than that we defended well and they rarely threatened .

The game followed a similar pattern in the second half but neither goalkeeper had a save of note to make and as the game entered its final moments it looked like we were going to get a very well deserved point with undoubtedly our best performance since the opening day .

Something can always happen of course and you hope its not a defining moment from an official but sadly it was , when well into stoppage time he awarded a penalty for hand ball . He made a mistake but of course you cant say that without getting into trouble and with the assessor who spent just shy of half an hour with the referee for his post match de brief it told us everything about the referees overall day and that moment in particular . The penalty was scored , cue the home team celebrations as they took the 3 points and we had to endure those painful moments as just about every one of their players said it was never a penalty . By the time we left the ground at 6 the match officials still hadn’t exited the dressing room presumably now aware of their mistake and wishing to avoid any further embarrassment .