Boss Thompson angered by sending off

12:40pm Friday 5th September 2008

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YATE boss Richard Thompson has slammed refereeing standards after his side were reduced to ten men for 65 minutes of the 2-0 defeat at Farnborough on Tuesday.

Scott Brice was deemed to bring down the home striker through on goal, but the referee got the wrong player and Thompson didn’t even think it was a foul.

He said: “It was the wrong person and it was never a sending off. The linesman said he saw something, but if he had he would have got the right person.

“There’s a massive campaign about respect, but you’ve got to earn respect. I’m tearing my hair out, it seems to be game after game.”

Yate were top of the table before suffering two defeats in four days. They were beaten 2-0 by Gloucester City at Lodge Road on Saturday and Thompson felt they wer feeling the effects after flying out of the blocks in the first four games.

He said: “It was one game too many, we did not appear to be at the races.

“We put in a lot of effort in the first four games and it caught up with us a little bit, but there’s no excuse.”

Thompson is now looking for a reaction from their players when they meet Oxford City at home on Saturday.

Yate are currently sixth, but with the table so tight at this stage, Thompson is cautiously looking over his shoulder and hopes his side can return to winning form.

He said: “We’ve got to show the right attitude, try and get something from the game and stay somewhere in the mix.

“We’ve already got ten points so it’s a decent start and we’ve lost to two very good sides so I’m not going to lose too much sleep over that.

“But the relegation zone is already six points and top is 14 points so we’re as close to the relegation zone as we are to the top.”

Regarding Saturday’s opponents he said: “They’ve had a mixed start, a couple of good results and a couple of bad results. I do not think they’re a bad side but they’re finding their feet a little bit and we need to capitalise on that.”

Yate will be without Tony Court after it was revealed he has torn a muscle in his shoulder after going off in the 2-1 win at Mangotsfield, and he will miss up to six weeks.

Paul Metheringham, who missed the trip to Farnborough, is set to miss out on Saturday but Thompson is hopeful Dave Anginsah will return after the winger missed the last two matches.