DARTFORD manager Tony Burman has criticised the match officials’ performances in his side’s 1-0 defeat away to Woking last night.

In the first half Darts midfielder Lee Noble was dismissed after committing two bookable offences in five minutes.

Despite being down to 10 men, they seemed to be heading for their first point of the season until the linesman awarded a controversial penalty in the 79th minute.

Dartford were unhappy with the decision to give a spot kick, as it seemed Adam Green’s debatable foul on Loick Pires took place outside the area.

Burman said: “Some people on the pitch need to watch the video and assess their performance last night.

“I’m upset with the penalty decision.

“I wasn’t in a position to comment too much last night but, after seeing the video, the linesman got the decision wrong.

“It was outside the box and it is debatable if it was even a foul.

“Overall though, it was a good performance. The players did well.

“I’m happy with the performances from the last two matches and I’m disappointed not to get anything out of them.”

He added: “We made mistakes in the first game (a 3-2 defeat to Tamworth) and were punished for them.

“There were no mistakes last night, the game just turned on the red card but we managed to hang on for 80-odd minutes.

“The sending off was probably the right decision.

“Lee let himself go after being booked.

“To do something like he did so soon after being booked was wrong, but had the referee made a decision in the build up to the booking there would never have been a foul by Lee.

“He had been fouled twice beforehand and nothing was given.”

Following the penalty decision, Dartford’s players surrounded the referee and linesman.

Goalkeeper Louis Wells was then booked after removing the ball from the penalty spot.

However, Burman argued his players were not ill-disciplined.

He said: “It’s quite easy to say the players should show discipline but it’s different in the heat of the moment.

“There was nothing nasty or worse than what we’ve come across before.”

Dartford’s next game is away to Macclesfield on Saturday.

It is their first of many trips north this season, but Burman is not planning on doing anything different from other away games.

He explained: “Nothing will change, we’ll travel up in the morning then travel back at night.

“We were considering staying overnight, but we haven’t got a midweek game next week, so the players will have time to recover from the journey.

“We faced some similarly-distanced trips last season, so we’ll be ready for it.

“Macclesfield is a tough game, they had a great result against Wrexham last night.”

Due to his dismissal, Noble will be unavailable on Saturday as suspensions are enforced at a quicker speed in the Conference than in the Conference South.

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