BOSS Tom Killick aired his frustration towards the match officials following Poole Town’s 3-0 home defeat to Braintree Town.

Dolphins conceded three times after going down to 10 men at Black Gold Stadium, following Will Spetch’s dismissal for a second booking just four minutes after the break.

And while Killick stressed he had no grievances about the red card shown to the defender by referee Alex Blake, he felt the contest could have been handled better by the man in the middle.

Spetch was cautioned for deliberate handball in the first half before earning his second booking after a mistimed challenge on Dernell Wynter.

Killick, who had spoken to Blake after the final whistle, told the Daily Echo: “I haven’t got huge complaints about the sending off.

“I felt in a way the first yellow card might have been harsh but, with the second one, their players switched on quite quickly that it was Will and he was on a yellow.

“They were quite vociferous in wanting another yellow. Some referees aren’t really affected by that but it was evident right from the start that this referee was capable of influence.

“The thing which was very evident was that he didn’t have a strong personality and he wasn’t really able to control the game.

“It wasn’t so much the sending off. I felt players could see that he was struggling and they were taking advantage of that.”

Following the dismissal, Marvin Brooks was controversially flagged offside as 10-man Poole looked to hit the visitors on the counter.

But high-flying Braintree eventually made the extra man count and ran riot to record a victory which took them to the top of National South.

Wynter set the ball rolling when he fired home a rebound following a double-save from Nick Hutchings in the Poole goal.

Mahrez Bettache made it two with a strike which flew into the far corner of the net after some neat step-overs.

And a tiring Dolphins backline were caught for a third time as Braintree’s Billy Crook tapped home to put the game beyond doubt.

“Going down to 10 it was always going to be difficult. As soon as we conceded, we felt at home we had to go after the game and we were always going to be vulnerable,” Killick added.

“We were killed by another decision when Marvin went clean through.

“He was 10 yards onside and had been given offside. It was 0-0 at that point and he was through against their goalkeeper.

“It’s easy to moan about the decisions but we know we competed very well and we were at least as good as them with 11 men.

“By the end it was humiliating. We were 3-0 down at home and they were just popping the ball around us, we were dead on our feet.

“But once the dust had settled you had to look at things and, until the sending off, I felt we were hugely competitive.”

Defeat left Dolphins 18th in the table, four points above the bottom three.

Dolphins: Hutchings, Lindsay, Moore, Spetch, Whisken, Pettefer, Bedford (Balmer, 73), Devlin, Bentley (Gillespie, 79), Brooks, Neale (Harfield, 51). Unused subs: Dickson, Rees (g/k).