NON LEAGUE: JUSTIN Gardner was yet again made to rue a refereeing decision against his side as the Millers suffered a 2-0 defeat at AFC Sudbury.

With the scores at 1-0 after a goal from Ollie Hughes early in the second half, Nathan Koranteng thought that he had equalised when his strike from the edge of the area thundered in off the bar.

But the goal was ruled out by the linesman on the far side who adjudged one of the Aveley players to have been in an offside position and in the eye-line of the Sudbury goalkeeper when the shot came in.

Under interrogation from the Millers boss, the linesman refused to confirm who was in an offside position, just that someone in red was, leaving Gardner livid with another referring decision that has gone against his side this season.

With over half an hour of the game still to play the decision came at a pivotal point in the match which could have heavily swung the momentum in Aveley’s favour.

Instead Sudbury went on to wrap up the points thanks to another slice of misfortune for the Millers, when a cross from the left was deflected perfectly into the path of Ryan Henshaw to tap home the clincher.

“I have to laugh, because if I don’t laugh I’ll cry” said the Millers boss about the decision to disallow Koranteng’s goal.

“I’m just hoping that all my bad luck is used up this season and that next season I have the most luck in the world. He (linesman) said he ‘thinks’ there was a red shirt.

Thinks – those were his exact words. “He said there was a red shirt in front of the goalkeeper so I asked him what number it was and he said “I’m not too sure.”

“I asked the ref, the ref didn’t know, then I walked off and one of the players said it was the seven (Kyle Asante) and then the linesman told me number nine (Lee Weemes) so I’m confused, but from where I looked it was a woeful decision.”

Aveley: Ronnie Worster, Adetayo Osifuwa, Karl Blake, Brian Okwera, Glen Golby, Mathias Bakare, Kyle Asante (Charlie Stevenson 80), Billy Holland (c) (Adeyinka Cole 74), Lee Weemes, Nathan Koranteng, Michael Begg (Oyetunji Oyewale 85).