NO LUCK AS IRON ARE LEFT TO PAY THE PENALTY
THERE was another dramatic finale to a game at Cressing Road this season with the Iron again conceding a penalty deep into stoppage-time.
Blair Turgott’s spot-kick in the 95th minute was enough to hand Stones new boss Harry Wheeler his first win in a game that threw up a number of talking points from some questionable refereeing decisions.
The crucial goal came when Iron substitute Luke Allen unnecessarily fouled Turgott going away from goal and the former Leyton Orient striker picked himself up and scored from the penalty low to the left of the diving Iron keeper Ben Killip.
A delighted Wheeler said: “They gave me a fantastic performance and we deserved to win even with such a late penalty.
“I had five new signings in the side and I knew it would take some time for them to gel, but they battled and worked hard from the off.
“My back line of defenders were magnificent in keeping their forwards at bay and overall we became a better unit the more the game progressed.”
Meanwhile, Iron assistant manager Barry Bolton said: “I am speechless – how we didn’t get something from the game is incredible and to lose again so deep into addedon time is an insult and adds to the misery.
“I know the referees have a difficult job, but today’s official was extremely poor and inconsistent because moments before he gave them a dubious penalty, up at the other end Reece Grant was blatantly brought down in the box and he simply waved play on. “The referee’s inconsistency over the few drop ball incidents in the game, which confused both sets of players, was another amazing experience. “There’s always a fine line as we know, but it’s down to the players at the end of the day to convert the many moves when we went forward and we should have scored more than once before conceding the late penalty.” In a game of few clearcut goal-scoring chances it was the Iron who had the more efforts on target, but failed to take them with Reece and Mohamed Bettamer going close in the first half, while at the other end Turgott forced Killip into two fine saves. As the second half progressed it was the home side that looked to be gaining the upper hand with again Reeces, Bettamer and Justin Amaluzar all seeing half-chances going begging and shooting by the post. The flow to the whole game was all too frequently disrupted by the whistlehappy referee and although it was by no means a dirty game he conceived to punish the visitors with 21 fouls and the home side 10 during an afternoon involving innocuous challenges.