Player-manager Ben Greenhalgh felt the worst refereeing performance of his football career cost Margate in their loss to leaders AFC Croydon Athletic on Saturday.

Gate were undone at Hartsdown Park as defender Cian McCarthy got the Isthmian South East game’s only goal in front of a 401-strong crowd.

Greenhalgh felt referee Simon Cutler should have awarded Gate four penalties - and even should have given the visitors one!

“It’s a very difficult one to take,” said Greenhalgh. “Everyone is being positive, we’re being positive and the performance was really positive.

"I know that will help us in the long run but we got zero points from Saturday.

“It was a game where we would have been disappointed if we had got a draw out of it. The fact we got zero points is absolutely crazy!

“I know it’s gone around social media.

"In the 17 years I’ve been playing, it’s the worst refereeing display I’ve seen! That’s nothing personal against him.

“Looking back, all of our penalty claims should go our way. For the first penalty claim, Kai (Garande) got clipped in the box.

“Even when the referee blew for half-time, we were in possession in their area and on the attack.

“Louie Atkins had a shot from about 12 yards and one of their players stopped it with his hand from about six yards out.

“Everyone was expecting the penalty and a red card, which would have had a massive influence on the game, but nothing was given.

“There were two more penalty claims, as well.

“Then when we were attacking with about five minutes to go, they had a player down with a head injury so the referee, correctly, stopped the game. But he restarted it with them in possession.

“Looking back, I actually think Croydon should have had a penalty, as well.

“They should have had one and we should have had four but there’s no point complaining to the FA.

"We’ll get nothing out of it.”

Danny Kedwell’s AFC Croydon team have enjoyed a fine start to the season, albeit they could be overtaken at the summit by Three Bridges or Faversham, who have fixtures in hand, so they knew it would be a tough game.

But Gate headed into it with confidence after last midweek’s 4-2 home triumph over AFC Whyteleafe.

“They had started unbeaten but lost to Jersey Bulls,” said Greenhalgh on AFC Croydon, co-owned by rapper Stormzy and MLS winger Wilfried Zaha. “At first, when we got that (opening-day 1-1) draw against Jersey, we were disappointed.

“But Jersey have settled into the division well. You’ve got to give them credit, they have been doing well this year.

“With new ownership and new management, we knew Croydon would be strong.

“Before we played Whyteleafe and Croydon, they were third and second. If we want to go back up the table, we knew we’d need to take points off them and start picking points up ourselves.

“We probably let our standards slip for about 10 minutes against Whyteleafe but, apart from that, we were really good.

"I’m not saying we dominated for 90 minutes on Saturday but Croydon didn’t really have a spell.

“I felt like we did everything we could - and still came away with zero points.”

Margate lost their midweek Kent Senior Cup clash 3-2 to Charlton under-21s.

Max Walsh and Jack Peters scored in the first half.

But Gate’s priority is on league matters, ahead of this weekend’s trip to Eastbourne, followed by a derby at home against Faversham on Tuesday.

“Our main focus is on Saturday,” said playmaker Greenhalgh, who hopes to have forwards Ibrahim Olutade and Kieron Agbebi in contention for their match at The Saffrons ground, having lost midfielder Sam Blackman to a knock against Croydon.

“It would have been brilliant if we’d had a Tuesday off. We have had one Tuesday off in the last eight weeks, the one before the Sheppey game.

“We went into Tuesday’s game with nine injured players. I probably haven’t mentioned that over the last week with how well we have been playing.

“We’re hoping to have Ibzs and Kieron back on Saturday but a couple picked up knocks last Saturday.

"It’s the first time since I’ve been at Margate that we have had this issue.

“We’ve got a long-term injury with Tom Derry. You build a team to play a certain way and he’s vital to that.

"We’re still not quite sure where we are with him.

“But with the other ones, we’re hoping to have most of them back for Saturday.”

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