Poor penalty call a massive frustration for Torquay United

After the pain of an FA Cup defeat at Bishops Cleeve, the last thing Torquay United wanted was a dismal decision to deny them three points before heading into a two-week break from action.

With the game locked at 1-1 and playing against the ten-man of St Albans, United were denied a stonewall penalty for a foul on Omar Mussa, a decision that ultimately cost the Gulls a chance of redemption from the cup exit.

“How can you not feel an injustice? From the very first minute, their left-back kicked the ball straight out of play and the ref gives them a throw-in, and it set a precedent for the whole game,” said United boss Paul Wotton.

“It’s a penalty on Omar but I don’t want to be that manager who bemoans officials. It’s our fault we conceded the goal, I’ll always be honest about that, and it was a bit of a dour game first half.

“Second-half, we upped the tempo and scored our goal. The turning point of the game was their player being sent off and it was then wave after wave of attacks from us. I was confident we would get something but I didn’t think our finishing was great.

“As I said, I don’t want to be ‘that’ manager but it is a penalty. Everyone could see it was a penalty apart from the one guy who is the most important guy.

“However, I was tremendously hurt last week [at Bishops Cleeve], angry and disappointed, but today [Saturday] I was proud of my boys. It has been a long week in training, rightly so. We owed the fans a performance of work-rate and endeavour, and the fans reciprocated with their support.”

While the first half lacked genuine creativity, the Gulls were a vast improvement from the previous week, responding to another outstanding attendance at Plainmoor, 3,278 enjoying the autumn sunshine.

The deadlock was broken four minutes into the second period, Ben Seymour pouncing on some hesitant defending to rifle a low drive into the back of a waiting net.

Unfortunately, the lead only lasted six minutes, Zane Banton beating James Hamon with a decent strike from the edge of the box, but Banton soon turned villain, receiving a straight red card for a poor aerial challenge on Ed Palmer that left the United defender unable to continue.

The numerical shift prompted a frantic conclusion that saw the Gulls pepper the St Albans backline. United were desperately seeking one decisive moment and it appeared to arrive when Mussa was clearly felled in the box.

Plainmoor rose in unison and expectation for the spot-kick but referee Samuel Reed waved away the protests, and with it two extra points for United.