Ben Smith was baffled by Lee Martin’s dismissal as Isthmian South East title favourites Ramsgate suffered an opening-day defeat.

Midfielder Martin saw red on his Rams debut after picking up two bookings in a 4-2 loss at Sevenoaks on Saturday.

The summer signing from Dover was cautioned for dissent and picked up his second yellow for diving.

Martin was innocent on both counts, according to his manager.

“There were some bizarre decisions going on in the game,” said new Rams boss Smith.

“Lee Martin got the softest red card he’ll ever receive in his career. To this minute, I don’t see what he’s done.

“The first yellow, he was simply asking the referee a question.

“He wasn’t rude, there was nothing in the heat of the moment, he was simply asking a question.

“Whether the ref has misconstrued what was said to him, I don’t know, but it was really bizarre.

“The second yellow, their lad’s gone flying in and Lee has tried to ride the tackle.

“We’re expecting a free-kick to us and suddenly he’s booked for diving and we’re down to 10 men.”

Smith refused to use the dismissal as an excuse for Ramsgate’s defeat.

They were 2-1 down at the time, Alfie Paxman with a free-kick after Emmanuel Mensah and Kieran Cadogan’s penalty had put Sevenoaks in charge.

New signing Joe Taylor levelled nine minutes from time but goals at the death from Solomon Baugh and Daniel Carr saw Smith lose his first league game in charge.

“Games are decided by fine margins and the fine margins certainly didn’t go our way but we’ve got to do better than that,” said Smith.

“We should be able to deal with that and still win the game or at least get something from it.

“When we got back to 2-2 it probably looked like there was only one winner so to then go and concede a third was a real sucker-punch, and they got a fourth with the last kick.

“With 10 players it’s hard to make a decision whether to stick or twist but it wasn’t like we were sending more players up, it was just the momentum of the game was in our favour.

“The officiating hasn’t helped but we’ve got to focus more on us and we didn’t help ourselves.

“It was a frustrating day at the office and we’ve got to lift ourselves and go again in the FA Cup this weekend.

“I said to the boys before the game, rightly or wrongly, we’re massive favourites for the league and we’ve got to embrace that.

“It’s one of those days when nothing has gone for us but you also make your own luck in this game.

“We’ve got two big training sessions this week to iron out some issues and get going again.

“Everyone expects us to thump teams but it doesn’t work like that.”

Ramsgate host Bexhill United in the FA Cup Preliminary Round this Saturday (3pm).

The visitors play a level below Rams in the Southern Combination League Premier Division.

Smith said: “We’ve had a report back on Bexhill.

“It’s a potential banana skin - all the cliches in the book come out when you play in the FA Cup against a team in the league below.

“If we perform, we know we should win the game, it’s as simple as that.

“That’s no disrespect to anyone, it’s a fact, but we have to work hard and get some of these weaknesses out of our game.”