PORTLAND United manager Brendon King has questioned the effectiveness of the sin bin rule in the Sydenhams Wessex Premier Division.

King, who admits he is in favour of the initiative, feels the rule is difficult to consistently enforce.

His comments were made after Portland had Jamie Beasley and Shaun Bessant sin-binned for dissent in Saturday’s 4-1 loss at Bashley.

Football sin-bins mirror those in rugby, meaning a player goes off the pitch for 10 minutes, but during the total 20 minutes with 10 men the Blues conceded three times.

Speaking to Echosport, King felt the circumstances surrounding the sin bins were difficult to accept during a game with several contentious incidents.

He said: “I think it would be a good ruling but it’s all about the referee’s interpretation.

“If you get a strong referee, they don’t do anything about (dissent). If you get a referee that’s not quite so strong, then they deal with it differently.

“Consequently, you’re not getting the level of consistency week in, week out. That’s where we struggle with it.”

King felt a Bashley player should have been given a red card for foul and abusive language.

“We had two (sin bins) and one of their players called the referee (an expletive) and he’s not dealt with it,” he said.

“I spoke to him at half-time. I said ‘you’ve sin-binned one of our players for less than that – that’s a red card offence, let alone a sin bin and you’ve done nothing about it’.

“That’s what frustrates players, frustrates management. He’s let a tackle go on Alex Godfrey which was a blatant yellow then books Josh Williams for something less.

“All we want as players and management is a bit of consistency and that’s what we’re not getting.”