TORQUAY UNITED manager Kevin Nicholson says his side were on the wrong end of “one of the worst decisions” he has seen in football during their game at Eastleigh on Tuesday night.
The Gulls were a goal down thanks to experienced striker Jamie Cureton but were pushing for an equaliser at the Silverlake Stadium.
However, referee David Rock ruled that Brett Williams had passed the ball back to keeper Brendan Moore and gave Eastleigh an indirect free-kick which they scored from through Andy Drury with just minutes left.
Ryan Bird killed off Torquay a minuter later with a third but player-boss Nicholson, who started the game at left-back for the Gulls, was left incensed by the official’s decision to award a free-kick for the second.
“He should have to explain what he’s done,” Nicholson told BBC Radio Devon. “It’s cost my boys something and it’s our fans that have paid money to watch.
“We were in with a good chance of getting something from the game and it’s totally taken out of our hands by one of the worst decisions I’ve seen in football.
“Going into the last seven or eight minutes of that game at 1-0 I fancied us strongly as we looked like the belief was coming back, we looked like we knew what we were doing and we never came away from anything I asked of them, I’ve got no criticism of the lads whatsoever.”
The defeat at the Silverlake has dropped the Gulls to 18th in the National League and they have won just one of their last eight games.
Despite their current run of poor form, Nicholson only had positive things to say about his players ahead of Saturday’s visit of fellow strugglers Southport.
“Whatever I say sounds like an excuse, and I don’t want it to come across like that, but we’ve come to somewhere that’s got resources beyond our wildest dreams and we’ve matched them toe for toe, stride for stride, pass for pass,” he added/
“We deserved a chance in the last five minutes to have a real good go at them and see if we could get something.”
