Scarborough 2 Gravesend & N 0

GRAVESEND & Northfleet were left cursing the referee after having three men sent off in Saturday's defeat at Scarborough.

Going into the match at the bottom of the table with just one win from six games, the last thing Fleet needed was to play the match short-handed.

But referee Russell Booth was in no mood to take pity on Fleet and sent keeper Alex O'Reilly off after just 106 seconds after he brought down Mark Quayle outside the box.

And to compound Fleet manager Andy Ford's woes he had no substitute keeper on the bench and was forced to hand the goalie gloves to Lee Shearer.

Fleet responded to adversity and began to play the better football - Francis Duku hitting the post with a header and Rob Haworth clipping the bar with a long-range effort.

But after 16 minutes they found themselves another man short when Booth decided Steve McKimm's foul on Nicky Henry merited him following O'Reilly from the pitch.

Still Fleet continued to look the better side than Scarborough and the score remained 0-0 at the break.

In the second half the home side began to make the two-man advantage tell but Fleet were still creating chances - Haworth going close from a Justin Skinner cross and then hitting the post with a thunderous volley.

Just as Fleet began to dream of an unlikely point, Booth intervened again to produce two more red cards when Skinner clashed with Karl Rose.

With the sides now 10 versus eight in favour of Boro, Fleet were at a massive disadvantage.

It still took another refereeing decision to break the deadlock, though, when Booth pointed to the spot after Eddie McClements tripped Alex Nesovic in the 63rd minute.

Quayle made no mistake with the penalty and the Scarborough sealed the win with a deflected Chris Senior shot with 10 minutes to go.

Ford said: "We should be discussing the game but all the talk will be about the referee."

Gravesend:O'Reilly, Lee, Duku, Shearer, Skinner, Gradley, Walshe, McKimm, Owen, Haworth, Pinnock. Subs: Strouts, Perkins.