WITHAM Town boss Garry Kimble slammed referee Nigel Phillips' performance in his side's 3-1 defeat to Maidstone United on Tuesday night.
Mr Phillips waved away a big penalty shout for Town and gave Maidstone a penalty of their own in the second half.
Kimble was also not happy that the referee handed Witham five yellow cards during the game.
The manager said: "To be fair I think the referee has spoilt the game. He has booked five of our players and only one of theirs. And the turning point was that we should have had a penalty and he didn't give it. It was a blatant penalty.
"No disrespect but I think that was the worst referee performance I have seen so far this season. We deserved to go in level but that decision was the turning point and I think in the second half the referee bottled it.
"I just don't get how he can book five of our players and I don't think there was a bad challenge in the game"
Lee Townrow equalised for Witham just before half-time after Frannie Collin had put the visitors in front.
But Collin added his second of the game from the penalty spot, with Jay May sealing the win with a third.
Kimble said: "They are a strong side and I think that they will win the league. They are physically strong, big and powerful all the way through the side. No one had really clear-cut chances in the first half, but if we had gone 2-1 up then I think we would have held on, but we got deflated.
"They seemed to play like Cambridge United back when I was a player, it was just route one and putting it into the corner. But they played to their strengths and are sitting top of the league. But our wide-men didn't quite penetrate them but fair play to their full-backs because they did a job on our guys."
Witham, who slipped down to 18th in the Ryman Premier, travel to Leatherhead on Saturday.
Kimble said: "Leatherhead away is going to be another tough game. They won tonight and we don't have [Bradley] Stopher on Saturday because he is unavailable so we are really down to the bare bones."
