Fleet hopping mad with 10-card trick official

The 20-year-old Ebbsfleet United left-back was booked by the Essex referee for dissent after 83 minutes and the 1,226 crowd - and Setanta viewers - looked on in bewilderment when he was shown his second yellow card - and then a red - just four minutes later.

With the Fleet losing 1-0, courtesy of an audacious overhead kick from Histon’s Damian Reeves on the stroke of half-time, Charles picked up the ball and evaded two challenges before being clipped by Antonio Murray.

Expecting the Fleet to be awarded a free-kick, Wickford whistle blower Mr Hopkins pointed the other way and controversially sent off the former Brentford man.

In a game of only 18 fouls committed by both teams, Mr Hopkins took the limelight and showed yellow cards to Neil Barrett, Michael Gash, Dean Pooley, Charles, Paul McCarthy and Jamie Hand - and also booked three Histon players in Murray, Jack Midson and Matthew Mitchel King.

Angry Ebbsfleet United boss Liam Daish devoted 99.9% of his press conference complaining about the performance from the man in the middle, who has now taken his season’s tally in just FIVE games to 40 yellows and two reds.

“We haven’t had no bad tackles, no nastiness,” raged Daish, when speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards.

But Daish, who was red carded during the interval at Altrincham and was forced to watch the second half through some railings from outside the ground, is fed up with match officials’ this week and has issued a rallying cry to his troops for Saturday’s trip to Kiderminster Harriers.

“We’ve got to get on with it and I’ve just said to the lads there, we’ve got to use this as a positive,” said Daish.

“We’ll get closer together, we’ll get closer knit. We won’t ask for any help, we’re not asking for help but against Histon, teams like Histon, who are a good side by the way, organised, strong, you need a decent referee, or a decent referee performance, so I’m not going to get into trouble, or a decent referee performance and we didn’t get that tonight.”

Daish added: “I’m not going to get involved with them any more. It tears you up and makes you very, very bitter.

“But I’ll concentrate on keeping the lads happy. We’ll get through it, we’ll get stronger, It will bind us a little bit, be more together and we’ll do it on our own, without any help.”

Last night, Daish said of Charles, “He’s an honest lad. He’s got to be one of the honest players I’ll ever work with, great kid, honest as the day’s long,” - and I have to agree.

I arrived at Northfleet train station a little later than planned and there were four teenage supporters that were talking to Charles as we waited for the last train back to London.

As the train was delayed by half-an-hour, Charles expressed his feelings of the events that went on down the road.

“I’m a defender, so I don’t know anything about diving,” Charles told www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

"I thought I was impeded twice and maybe I went down a bit easy but I thought I was fouled twice early on before hand anyway.

"I didn’t turn around and have a go at the referee for wanting a free-kick, I actually tried to get back up and continue playing, but he blew the whistle and gave me a second yellow. I wasn’t happy. I was not (happy) at all.”

The 20-year-old admitted he was disappointed with the Fleet’s performance, especially as a draw would have seen the north Kent club climb into third place in the Blue Square Premier table after thirteen games.

They came across a direct side and their 45^th minute goal came from one of their direct throw ins.

Gareth Gwillim launched the ball into the Ebbsfleet penalty area and the ball was flicked on twice by Midson and Mitchel King and Reeves’ right-footed over-head kick gave Lance Cronin no chance as it flew across him and into the net.

And Charles said: “We’re very disappointed that we didn’t pick up the six points over this period, because we felt over the two games that we’ve played we were better than the teams we’ve played against.

“A couple of referee decisions in both games has let us down.

“We’ve let ourselves down with the way we’ve played but overall I think we’ve been let down by the officials in both games to be honest.”

Charles was disappointed with the way that Cronin was beaten.

He said: “A big throw like that is always going to be a threat and it’s a bit disappointing to concede from it because it’s just like a corner.

“It’s pretty much a set piece and you shouldn’t really concede from them but they’ve scored just a minute before half-time as well, which is always difficult to concede at that time.”

Charles serves his ban on Saturday and sits out the match at Kidderminster Harriers on Saturday - a game that the Fleet are looking to get their promotion push back on track.

“We’ve dropped six points over the two games and we’ll be looking to get back on a winning run against Kidderminster, who are above us and it’ll be good to peg back one of the teams above us,” said Charles.

“We could have gone third, it’s really disappointing. At this moment in time we’re lacking that, not determination, not that steel, but when that opportunities there, we haven’t grabbed them.

“We should be top if we look at the games that we could have won, Mansfield, Oxford, Woking - we’ve conceded late goals.

“It’s really disappointing but we’ll definitely be up there at the end of the season. It’s a marathon and not a sprint.”

Charles agrees that Ebbsfleet United’s close-knit family will drive them onto more success.

When asked where he was travelling to, Charles replied: “Down Ealing way. It’s not that close I know.”

But he is willing to commute all the way from west London to play for a friendly, family club, that can compete against some of the giants of the Blue Square Premier.

“I’m really enjoying it. It’s really lovely down there,” he said. “The boys are good, the gaffer, the assistant and all the coaching staff are amazing.

“We’re like a family, all the boys get together and we do things together outside of football. The teams who do well are the ones who are the closest.”

Visit Ebbsfleet United’s website: www.ebbsfleetunited.co.uk

Kidderminster Harriers v Ebbsfleet United
Blue Square Premier
Saturday 11^th October 2008
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Aggborough Stadium, Hoo Road, Kidderminster, DY10 1NB