HIGHWORTH boss John Fisher claimed ‘there wasn’t one bad tackle’ as seven players were sent off in Saturday’s 2-0 win at Thame.

TJ Bohane’s double proved only a sideshow to the main event which saw four players from the home side and three from Highworth dismissed by referee Mateusz Filipiak.

Thame were top of the Hellenic League Premier Division’s Respect table at the end of November, but there was little discipline shown by the hosts or their opponents at the weekend.

Highworth’s Chris Flanagan was red-carded minutes before half-time for grabbing an opposition player around the neck and United suffered four dismissals after the break.

Filipiak brandished three of the game’s seven red cards in the closing moments, the first of these following a second yellow for Brad Clark, who was punished for kicking the ball away.

A Thame player was also sent off for clattering into Bohane before Toby Clark was given his marching orders following a scuffle.

For Fisher, the multiple dismissals took the gloss off an impressive victory at the ASM Stadium.

“A great team performance has been overshadowed and that’s the most disappointing thing for me,” he said.

“It looks really bad but it wasn’t like that because there wasn’t one bad tackle at all. It was just a referee who completely lost control.

“It was a great result considering they have gone eight unbeaten, but it took the icing off the cake for me. I’ve never known anything like it in my life.

“Both benches and commitees thought it was an absolute disgrace and we’re going to put complaints in. The referee didn’t get out until half past six because he was with the assessor.

“Let’s be fair, I’m not condoning Toby and Flanners, they were both silly dismissals, although it’s not easy to not react in those situations, so I can understand why they did it.

“Brad took one for the team in pulling someone back who was through, but then he got another one for kicking the ball away, which was silly.”

Lower down the ladder in Division One West, Fairford secured a 2-0 win over Old Woodstock at Cinder Lane.

Following a goalless first half, Nathan Gambling put the hosts in front when he nodded home a corner at the near post.

The win was sealed deep into injury time when Callum Parsons crossed for Cameron McLarty to side-foot into the net.

Malmesbury’s visit to Lydney and Purton’s trip to Tuffley were both postponed.