Hayrettin: Draw felt like a defeat
Hakan Hayrettin questioned the referee’s timekeeping after Maidstone conceded a late penalty at Bath.
The match was well into the fifth minute of added time when Chris Lewington conceded the spot-kick which led to City’s equaliser in a 1-1 draw.
Four minutes had been signalled by referee Sunny Gill and Stones head coach Hayrettin couldn’t see why he went over that.
He said: “Why put up four if you’re going to play five?
“I know it’s a minimum of four but I don’t see where the extra time came from. I’m going to go and see him. It’s absolutely gutting. It feels like a defeat.”
Hayrettin felt for Lewington, who was filling in for Jake Cole at Twerton Park.
He’d marked his first appearance of the season with an outstanding first-half save from Tom Smith’s deflected shot and looked set for a clean sheet before giving away the penalty.
Hayrettin said: “There’s no hiding the fact it’s a penalty. He’s made a mistake. It’s rash.
“He’s had a little bit of a bloodrush but in football sometimes people don’t look at the good things you do.
“He’s made a great save in the first half, a hell of a save, and we’ll take that from him.”
Maidstone worked hard, defended well and took the lead with Ryan Johnson’s 76th-minute header. Victory would have moved them to within a point of the National South play-off places but they remain ninth after the late blow. Hayrettin said: “It’s a great header by Johnson, from a corner we’ve worked on.
“We should have won but any team that comes here and gets anything, it’s a good result. “They’re a big club, with decent support, and they get behind their team but we’ve got to be winning these games.
“We’re going to be up there, it’s just eradicating these mistakes we keep making in games.”