WEYMOUTH manager Brian Stock admitted it would have taken a “brave referee” to award a 91st-minute penalty in their 1-0 defeat to Wrexham.

Stock’s men were trailing since the 29th minute when a sumptuous ‘up and over’ free-kick from Jordan Davies handed the Hollywood-backed Red Dragons a 1-0 lead.

Wrexham wasted chances to extend their lead, allowing Weymouth to creep into the game in the dying embers.

In stoppage-time, the Welshmen had hearts in mouths when Martell Taylor-Crossdale went down after a challenge in the box, Weymouth’s frenzied appeals for a penalty ignored.

With more than 7,500 fans in attendance and the BT Sport cameras covering the game, Stock criticised the officials for their handling of the incident.

He told Echosport: “At first thought, it was a penalty. I’ve heard other people saying it was an absolute definite penalty.

READ MORE: Wrexham 1-0 Weymouth - match report

“One or two of their members of staff, speaking to them after the game, their opinion on it was that they were holding their breath.

“Look, when you come to these places and you’ve got this crowd and that exposure, it takes a brave referee to give it, especially in the 91st minute.

“Unfortunately, quite a lot of referees do buckle under that pressure.”

Stock expressed his pride in hybrid-time Weymouth’s performance against the big-spending, full-time Wrexham – in what effectively amounted to a David vs Goliath clash.

“I’m very proud of the players,” he said.

“You look at the amount of effort that’s gone into the game, the staff in the build-up.

“We went in with a game plan to try and stay in the game. I felt we defended resolutely throughout the whole of the 90 minutes.

“We wanted to stay in the game and at times we had to concede possession. Going into the end of the game we were 1-0 down with everything to play for.

“I do honestly believe that we should’ve had a penalty and with Martell’s opportunity – you never know, we could’ve been going home on the coach with something.”

He added: “There are positives in the performance. The strength in depth, the power they have, the way they put the ball into the box – we knew we had to defend the box.

“Ross (Fitzsimons) played really well, the back five were excellent and I thought Tom Solanke on his debut looked like he’d been playing there all season.

“Everyone else worked their socks off. There are positives but ultimately we’ve lost the game, so we’re not going to get carried away.

“If we can come to these places and maybe come away with something, given the gulf, that for me is a positive.”

Discussing his side’s tactics, and why Weymouth were not as active in front of goal as usual, Stock added: “We knew that was going to be the case.

“We went with something we haven’t done before, in terms of a mid-block.

“We wanted to almost concede possession – which is very rare in this league.

“We left (Ben) Tozer on the ball and stopped the outside centre-halves from stepping in.

“In an ideal world, I’d like more shots on target. More corners, more free-kicks.

“But we wanted to stay in the game and then roll the dice, bring on Martell, Omar (Mussa), Shieldsy.

“You look at the amount of goals we’ve conceded in the past four games and we wanted to come here and keep a clean sheet. That was the fundamental task.

“We nearly did it but a really good piece of individual brilliance from Davies won the game.”