Officials of a poor standard - Tom

SKELMERSDALE United did not have a good game on Saturday as an uninspired performance led to a 4-0 thrashing from Barwell.

Tommy Lawson’s side had two players sent off after Skem conceded a penalty in the first half before the goals started to flood in.

It was another blow for Skem, who are fighting to get away from the depths of the relegation zone and into safety in the league table.

The manager admitted it was a disappointing performance from his side but Lawson was not happy with the officials and stated they were at fault for a number of issues.

“I thought we were below par. We didn’t play well but we had a really poor referee again. She did not have a good performance. She allowed herself to be intimidated,” said Lawson.

“Their penalty was very controversial and we had two players sent off which I don’t believe deserved to be. I wasn’t the only one with that opinion.

“Even the linesman said our player shouldn’t have been sent off but he did nothing about it and didn’t even question her decision.

“It was like we were banging our heads against a wall watching the officials. They were a very low standard. It’s frustrating when that happens.

“There can’t be any excuses though. We weren’t as good as we know we can be and we just need to dust ourselves down now and remain positive.”

Lawson continued: “Alex Davies was out for eight weeks but he came back and played the full 90 minutes so I was very happy for him.

“Ideally we would have taken him off but the red card dismissals changed things a little. He was fantastic though. He has shown great commitment and that was a real positive from the game.

“We’ll access how he’s feeling in reaction to the game this week in training but hopefully he will be okay to play again on Saturday (against Buxton).