Dover slumped to a seventh defeat in their past eight games in London 1 South, after losing 28-10 against high-flying Sidcup at Crabble.

And it wasn’t only the game Sharks lost according to coach Graham Tonks.

He said: “We lost the referee and we lost the plot.

“You will always struggle to win anything when that happens."

Tonks said what really cost his side a chance of getting something out of the game against the third-placed visitors was the huge penalty count against Sharks.

He said: “It (the penalty count) killed us.

“It murdered us to be honest. We lost the ref very early in the game and it really hurt us on the scoreboard.

“It was soul destroying, it really was, because they were no better than us, despite what the result suggests.”

The visitors led 9-3 at half-time before extending that advantage to 21-3 at one stage after the restart.

Again it was the penalty count that hurt the hosts.

Tonks said: “We had two yellow cards, one after the other, and that certainly didn’t help our cause.

“The penalties ensured they didn’t have to do really much to win and that was so disappointing.”

Read the full story in the Mercury