I hope that anyone who reads this looks at my older posts and realise that I don't normally criticise referees but today's game was totally and utterly ruined by the man in the middle who must have thought that we'd all paid to see him. Benn was sent off after 35 minutes after a coming together with Norton's number 3. I fully admit that I didn't see what happened as it was over the other side of the pitch but a number of people have confirmed that Benn was sent off for violent conduct after throwing over Brown who went over clutching his face. The ref (apparently) sent Benn off for grabbing Brown round the throat when any contact was on the chest.

In the second half, the ref gave a penalty for handball by Tommy from a corner when no Norton player appealed and most of them were returning to the half way line for a goal kick.

To top it all off, Burto was sent from the dugout for complaining when a Norton player stood 2 yards away from a Marske free kick and prevented the free kick being taken.

All in all, the ref was absolutely appalling today, without doubt the worst I've seen in the Northern League. Having said that, Marske didn't play well but if the ref had kept it 11v 11, who knows what the result would have been.

We move on though and Tuesday is another tough game when RCA visit the GER stadium. Let's hope that it's different ref.

I have to agree. It was possibly the worst refereeing performance I've seen in this league (and the one when we played Bedlington earlier in the season took some beating).

In addition to the above, there was the free-kick that wasn't given when Bruno had his shirt pulled back when clean through on goal. If the ref had blown, he surely would've had to show the Norton defender a red card as he was the last man. There was also the throw-in that the ref decided wasn't taken quickly enough and gave it Norton's way instead.

It was almost as if he'd taken exception to the Marske players and fans disagreeing with his decisions and just decided to wind them up at every opportunity.

In terms of the football, I felt we were the better side while it was still 11 v 11. Benn had a great chance after just 2 minutes when he managed to outpace the defender and lob the keeper, the ball landing just wide of the post.

Lips produced his weekly world-class save after 15 minutes, getting across to brilliantly tip a curling shot round the post.

Benn had another chance a few minutes later when he had a free header but could only find the side netting.

Despite being a man down, Marske started the second half better when Gilly burst through the defence and had a chance to shoot but paused and looked for support and the move broke down. Moments later he did decide to have a dig from distance but it was a comfortable save for Jim Provett.

Lips produced another magnificent save when he had to back-pedal to tip an effort over the bar, as Norton's numerical advantage began to show.

The penalty seemed to knock the stuffing out of us and Norton created a few chances they should've converted but at only 1-0 we still had a chance. Sadly, the lead was doubled with 10 minutes to go when Lips sent a goal kick straight across the ground to Magowan who fired past the stranded keeper to double the lead.

Norton were certainly the stronger team in the second half but you'd expect that against 10 men and who knows what would've happened if Benn hadn't been sent off.

We don't like to criticise referees but every big decision went Norton's way today and it had a massive impact on the game and the lack of consistency regarding the treatment of both teams was rather alarming.

It's important that we try and bounce back and don't fall into the same pattern we did earlier in the season when losing a few games to quality opposition hit our confidence and we started losing games we should've been taking points from. We have two tough games coming up against RCA and Newton Aycliffe but we showed earlier in the season we're capable of getting results against those teams so here's hoping we can get back to winning ways.

Very well put Martin. Must admit that my post didn't really cover the game (which yours did), rather just concentrated on the performance of the ref. As you point out though there were other decisions the ref made (or didn't) which contributed to his poor performance. In particular, there was the foul on Bruno which the assistant really should have helped with (we could all see it and he was on the same side as us). There was also a shout of handball against Magowan for the second goal though I couldn't tell from where I was stood.

Anyway, we move on and need to forget about today and look forward to Tuesday which will be another tough game but one in which we can take 3 points.

I have to agree with all of the above as Martin and Mark are spot on (as usual) with their summaries of the game and I think we would have got something out of it if Benn had stayed on as their back four were struggling to contain him. On a different note it was good to see Rawsy fit again and back in the side but I was surprised to see our top scorer Charlo on the bench as we seem much more of a threat with him in the side. The ref definitely spoiled what was a pretty even game which was being played in a good spirit and one that could have gone either way. Both their goals were debateable although 'Lips' did make two fantastic saves to keep us in it so we'll never know which way it might have gone. However, it's gone now so we must go all out to get three points on tuesday night against a good RCA side that we had on the ropes when 2 nil up at their place but couldn't finish them off and they came back to snatch a draw.
I think just a few more points will guarantee us first division football again next year so we need to get back in the groove that produced that nine game unbeaten run earlier in the season, hopefully starting on tuesday night.

It wasn't a great performance yesterday but it certainly wasn't helped by the sending off, the crazy decisions of the boy in the middle of the park (I refuse to use the word man on this occasion), and the wind. We'd have beaten Norton 9 times out of 10 but it just didn't go our way.

Graeme was very good again and it was a shame he made that second half error, but that's the first this season from my memory which is a great achievement. Gelly worked hard and put in a good performance too.

I'll let you know if I see the referee this afternoon....we're taking the kids to go and see The Muppets. I'm sure he'll be making a cameo appearance

I like it Steve.