Paul Burton was disappointed to lose out to play-off chasing Birtley Town in what proved a contentious game at the John Keegan Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The boss felt aggrieved by a number of refereeing decisions - as did most of the terraces - yet felt his side made crucial mistakes for both of the visitors goals.

Marske United had originally taken the lead through Dom Joynes in a dominant opening ten minutes. Reece Harrison responded from a dead ball, before Nick Marley headed Birtley in front after the restart.

Charlie Watt was shown the red card following his reaction to a dubious refereeing decision midway through the second half.

Though frustrated with the officiating, Paul Burton acknowledged that the defeat came from mistakes within.

He said: “It’s a tough one to take because I think the referee and the officials have missed quite a few things that were critical to the result of the game.

“It’s not hard to take when we concede two goals. I said to the lads in the dressing room at the end, you can blame the officials and you can blame the linesman, but at the end of the day, we haven’t defended twice.

“The start we had was fantastic. Possibly the best start we’ve had all season. They did exactly what we asked them to do.

“We went out and scored a very good goal, and you’re thinking that we’re going to go on to win this game comfortably.

“Twenty minutes in we stop. We allowed them more possession in the middle of the park, and they were picking up all the second balls that we were at the start.

“I wasn’t surprised it was 1-1 at halftime. I think they came back into it, and it was probably a fair result at that point.

“The second goal, I’m not too sure what happened. I thought it was poorly defended. I thought we showed a bit of a fight after that though, and genuinely thought we would get something from the game.”

The game’s contentious moment came shortly after the hour mark when last man Sam Hedley yanked the shirt of Charlie Watt to stop him running through on goal.

The officials were unmoved by the incident, only taking interest once the Marske forward reacted in a rather poor manner towards the gloating Birtley captain.

Paul Burton admitted he couldn’t condone Charlie’s actions, but did question what the officials had seen to discount what he argued was a blatant foul.

He said: “I just don’t know what the referees see at times. I don’t want to complain, but I just don’t know what they see.”

“We’ve had a man sent off after he’s blatantly pulled back. If anything it’s a red card in the opposite direction, it was a goal scoring opportunity.

“Obviously, our guy has reacted, and I don’t condone that. I don’t think he’s made contact with him. Their center half has gone down like he’s been shot, but I suppose that’s football these days.

“I’m just disappointed. Disappointed to lose that run of three games. Disappointed to get beat here, because we’re trying to make it a bit of a fortress.

“I thought on the balance of play we did enough with ten - even nine men to get a point. We had chances, and we could’ve quite easily equalised.

“I’m disappointed, but now we just have to start again on Tuesday.“