NEW Dorchester Town boss Craig Laird remained diplomatic after his side were left to pay the penalty, in his first game in charge at the Avenue.

Referee Lee Rutter provided the game’s main talking point in the Magpies’ 1-0 home defeat to Banbury on Saturday, awarding a spot-kick against the hosts five minutes from time.

He made the call that Dorchester full-back Neil Martin had handled a ball inside the box, which was drilled at him from Banbury’s Marvin Martin on the left flank.

That gave Puritans’ striker Mark Bell the opportunity to win the game from 12 yards with the resulting penalty, and he duly despatched.

Giving his take on the incident, Laird said: “It was a cruel end. The referee can only give what he sees and he thought it was a penalty.

“I could not see it from where I was. Whether he had caught it, I’m not sure, but there you go.

“Neil said it hit him on the chest or sort of the midriff.

“He (Marvin Martin) hit it with some force and it’s one of those things.”

The Magpies’ manager added: “They (Banbury) wanted that bit of luck and they got it, they are a good side and are pleasing on the eye.

“They work the ball, take their time and control the game and tempo. That’s what we want to try and do, we probably gave the ball away too many times in good areas.

“That’s what we need to work on over the next months going into the end of the season and then in through pre-season and into next year.”

With playing options on the bench limited to youngsters at present, Laird is still keen to get some more players into his squad in the coming week.

“We were low on numbers, as you could see,” he added.

“We had our best eleven out there and they just didn’t quite have the legs. That will chance over the next couple of weeks, it has to, and otherwise we are going to languish where we are.

“We have got our feelers out and we should be making some signing to strengthen the squad and help the group of players we have got.”