Steve McKimm wants referees to be held accountable for their decisions after claiming the standard of officiating this season has got “beyond a joke.”

Big calls went against Angels at Worthing on Saturday as the bottom side in Bostik Premier claimed a 2-0 win.

Rebels keeper Lucas Covlan was only booked for body-checking Nathan Elder outside the penalty area and the home side were awarded a penalty when Craig Stone looked to have clearly won the ball.

The referee’s performance left Angels boss McKimm fuming.

He said: “It’s the hardest job but it’s made harder by decisions being made wrong.

“If I make wrong decisions on the sideline, whether it’s substitutions or my starting line-up, I’ve got to take the ramifications after the game.

“It doesn’t seem these officials have to worry about that.

“I know we need referees in the game, I know they’re going to get things wrong but on Saturday, you didn’t even need replays or technology to know some of those decisions were horrendous.

“It’s plain and blunt for everyone to see apart from the man that counts.

“It’s not just me. There’s other people up in arms about it. It’s getting beyond a joke at times.

“I can’t get my head round it and I’m not the only one.

“But the referee wasn’t the reason we lost. I would never put it down to that because I look at myself and my team before I look at anybody else to point the finger.”

Defeat leaves Tonbridge seven points off the play-offs ahead of Saturday’s home clash with leaders Dulwich Hamlet.

McKimm said: “I always love playing teams like Dulwich. They’re a good footballing side and they’re games you want to play in. They’re exciting games for the crowd.

“If the players give me everything and we don’t get the result, at least I know they’re giving everything for the Tonbridge Angels badge.

“We’d like to be higher but we’re in touching distance of the play-offs. We are where we are because that’s where we deserve to be.

“Everyone wants to be in a better position, myself included, but we’re not so we’ve got to roll our sleeves up and work extra hard to get where we need to be.”

New signing Dan Bennett is set to feature against Dulwich and McKimm hopes to bring another player in by Saturday.