GARETH Davies was left to rue another poor refereeing decision as his struggling Malmesbury Victoria side fell to a 1-0 defeat to Division One West title chasers Lydney Town.

A first half strike from Jarred Liddington gave the Severnsiders the lead, but that goal brought the Flying Monk Ground side to life.

However, Davies was left biting his tongue in the second period when Scott Chilcott was brought down in the Lydney box only for appeal for a penalty to fall on deaf ears with the referee.

“It was a stonewall penalty, their manager (Mark Lee) said that it was a poor decision and even the lad, when he came off admitted that he clipped Scott,” Davies said.

“As the linesman ran past me after I asked him why it wasn’t a pen, he said that he thought it was.

“But I couldn’t go and speak to the referee after the match because I thought I’d just get even more wound up.

“This is the second time in three weeks this has happened to us and it is costing us vital points.

“I wrote in my programme notes that the standard of refereeing is not what it used to be - just look what happened at the top level over the weekend!”

Despite being left frustrated by another poor decision from the officials, Davies was pleased with how his struggling side performed against a team who sit in fifth place.

While thinking that it is unlikely that his Vics team will be relegated due to their ground, the Malmesbury chief is determined to ensure that they stay up on merit.

“Their goal was a little bit sloppy on our part,” Davies said. “But it woke us up.

“Against a side that could potentially still win the league, I thought that our performance was good - especially in the second half.

“Kieran Shail didn’t have a save to make, so we have to take the positives out of what was a very frustrating day.

“We have got Purton on Tuesday night and that is now, like all the other games that we have played recently, is a massive, massive match.”