Dandy Town 5

Flanagan’s Onions 3

By Lawrence Trott

Controversy tarnished the highest-scoring Premier Division match this season as Flanagan’s Onions were left fuming by a 53rd-minute goal by Dandy Town that was allowed to stand by referee Anthony Francis at St John’s Field.

Clay Darrell scored after Francis allowed play to continue despite the linesman’s flag going up. Darrell took advantage by picking up the loose ball, which had been put down by Stephen Gould, the goalkeeper, outside the box and rolling it into an empty net. The Onions players assumed offside had been called and stopped playing.

Emotions then boiled over after Francis confirmed the goal would stand, with four Onions players booked and Keston Lewis, the striker, sent off for abusive language.

Vincent Minors, the Onions substitute and one of the players booked in the incident, scored a brilliant free kick to equalise for Onions in the 69th minute but was shown a second yellow card after the final whistle for shouting “disgrace” at the referee as he was being escorted off the field by security.

“There was just no instruction by the referee as to what was going on,” Gavin Thomason, the Onions substitute, said. “They flagged for offside, the ball rolled through to our keeper who picked up, walked ten yards with it and then put it down [outside the box].

“If they played on then, why wasn’t it a handball [by the goalkeeper]? It should have been an offside or handball and the whistle didn’t go and in the end their player did what he did and took advantage of it, but I don’t think we would have done that. It wasn’t in the spirit of the game and was a great game before that.

“We showed a bit of heart after that but it was tough. Even after a player was sent off we came back to three-all but it was too much in the end.

“It’s a tight league but we do have two home games [Somerset and Rangers] coming up.”

Jomar Wilkinson, the Dandy Town coach, said: “The referee acknowledged the offside but the goalkeeper had control of the ball and he let the play go on and that was the mix-up, I think.

“Bad calls happen... if it was a bad call. We’ve been on the short end of the stick and it is a part of the game.”

After having an effort by Pete Robey in the fifth minute ruled out for offside, Onions took the lead in the seventeenth. Martel Laws scored from inside the six-yard box after up a shot from Martez, his twin brother, which hit the inside of the post after a Kevin Ronaldson free kick had struck the Dandy Town wall.

Martel Laws then gifted Town a penalty for their equaliser seven minutes later when he was penalised for a high boot after Jahtino Richardson-Martin was kicked in the head. The experienced Damon Ming made no mistake with his spot kick. Both teams kept pushing forward and Town had a Darrell effort ruled out. Town, though, did go ahead for the first time six minutes from the break when a shot from Angelo Simmons was parried by the diving Gould and the alert Darrell pounced to tap home the rebound.

Onions introduced Minors for Daniel Samilski at the start of the second half and within three minutes they levelled when Darren Thompson converted from close range after a ball into the Town box.

Minutes later Town scored their controversial third to make it 3-2, but Onions fought back to equalise again with a well-taken free kick by Minors whose shot went in off the far post.

However, Town struck twice in the space of nine minutes late on to settle a thrilling contest. Richardson-Martin netted in the 79th minute with a low shot from near the edge of the box and Simmons cushioned the lead with a fifth two minutes from time when he drove his low shot past the goalkeeper to stretch Town’s unbeaten run to four.

The three points move Town on to eight points, level with North Village in mid-table. “I was very pleased with my team, we knew it was going to be a physical game and we didn’t ask any favours of the referee and went out there to battle,” Wilkinson said.