DISMAYED Dudley Sports boss Tony Gore couldn't hide his disappointment as his side surrendered a 3-1 lead against Wednesfield after being reduced to nine men.

Sports had looked in control of the game at the break after Romano Graham had rifled home a first half hat-trick.

But within five minutes of resumption, Graham was given his marching orders by the replacement referee who then compounded Sports' problems by dismissing debut player Rhys Henry just moments later.

High flying Wednesfield took full advantage to level matters and then struck a 4-3 winner six minutes into stoppage time, with Lopes Massampo, James Quarry, Alex Foreshaw and Reece Mason the men on target.

Gore summed up the situation as a farce after it was revealed the original match referee wouldn't be turning up due to illness half an hour before kick off.

Gore said: "The scheduled referee had phoned in ill during the morning but nobody had told Wednesfields. We waited for a replacement linesman to turn up, but nobody arrived.

"One of Wednesfield's youth team coaches offered to run the line and I have no complaints with that.

"But the senior linesman who took over showed his inexperience at refereeing and that shouldn't be happening at this level of football.

"Romano was sent off after stopping Wednesfield from taking a quick free kick. He was already on a yellow card and he was naive to do it.

"Rhys' s sending off was ridiculous and never a red card. The referee said he'd sent him off for showing an aggressive attitude in the tackle yet the Wednesfield player concerned had ridden the tackle.

"The referee then found eight minutes of added time and Wednesfield got the winner in the 96th minute which was a real sickener."

Gore gave four players their debuts after bringing in Keiran Price from Gornal and Smethwick Rangers player Jordan McGovern, while Jason Wood has arrived along with Rhys Henry from Sunday football in West Bromwich.

Gore added: "We played much better than of late and for the first 50 minutes we looked really good. It was just a shame about the sendings-off."

Sports have slipped back to 15th spot in the West Midlands League Premier but bid to bounced back this Saturday when they host Shifnal Town at Hillcrest Avednue who are directly below them in the table.