Red card misery angers Fareham boss Stiles
Seething Pete Stiles raged at the refereeing decision he felt proved a hugely defining factor in Fareham Town's home Wessex League Premier Division thumping by Portland.
But the Reds boss admitted he had to shoulder some of the blame after his troops were stuffed 7-3 at Cams Alders.
Fareham were reduced to 10 men right on the stroke of half-time as Ryan Mackney was shown a straight red card following a tackle.
Stiles felt the challenge warranted a yellow card at best - and ultimately left his team facing a tall order for the remainder of the match at 2-1.
He fumed: ‘It doesn’t help when you’ve got a referee sending a player off for something which was even questionable whether it was a yellow (card) in the first half.
‘I’m getting sick and tired of referees dictating and ruining games and it was yet another (occasion). It makes you question why you bother doing football.
‘Ryan’s gone in for a tackle, it’s nothing more than that, it was questionable whether it was a yellow and he’s pulled a red out to send him off.
‘I’m questioning whether to stay in the game because it’s really getting to me.
‘We were 2-1 down, chasing it, but we still felt we could get back into it then we were down to 10 men.’
When Kai Sterne slotted Fareham in front inside three minutes, very few could have predicted what was to come.
Fareham would go onto concede seven goals in a league game for the first time since a 7-0 home defeat to Blackfield & Langley in December 2016 Stiles took charge several weeks later.
After hat-trick hero Ben Morris had levelled on 29 minutes, he turned the game on its head four minutes later with his second to put Portland ahead.
Mackney was then shown a straight red in the lead-up to the break to leave the hosts with it all to do.
But the five goals the Reds conceded after the break – incredibly just a week after winning 5-1 at titlehopefuls Horndean with nine of the starting XI having started at Five Heads Park as well, the only exceptions being keeper Dan Kempson and Mackney was ‘just not good enough’ admitted Stiles.
And efforts in the second half from Garry Moody, who made it 4-2, and
Josh Benfield were nothing more than mere consolations.
Stiles stressed: ‘He’s contributed (the referee) but we weren’t good enough again and the buck stops with me on that.
‘I put the team out and we didn’t fight hard enough, we didn’t compete hard enough, we rolled over and it’s just not good enough.’