Market Drayton Town’s assistant manager Delwyn Humphries, and central defender Paul McMullen, received marching orders from referee Dragan Kuzmanovic as he and an assistant, Richard Gould, came under fire in a verbal punch up, writes Terry Morris.

McMullen was sent off for harassing referee Kuzamanovic non-stop as they marched back to the centre circle from Rainworth’s goalmouth, where the visitor’s Tommy Hannigan had clearly handled the defender’s 57th minute shot off the line.

Minutes later, Humphries followed as, still simmering, he argued on the touchline with Gould over the incident, which also incensed home fans, convinced their team should have had a 2 -2 equaliser or at least the chance to get that scoreline with a penalty.

Humphries said afterwards that he had apologised to the officials.

“Whatever my thoughts, I should not have said what I did,” he said. “I apologised to the linesman.”

Town boss Simon Line, while clearly unhappy about it all, would only say: “Virtually everyone here saw their player clearly handle the ball.”

The row erupted amid pretty routine Evo-Stik League South fare served up by sides fighting to pull away from the relegation zone.

Drayton started strongly but, in the end, were undone by opponents who ran faster and passed with greater speed. But on the stroke of half time, Rainworth keeper Mark Hales threw Drayton a lifeline.

Under pressure from Town’s Martyn Davies and McMullen he mishandled Tom Rogers’s corner kick into his own net.

Rainworth equalised thr-ee minutes after the break when Ashley Burd’s ill-timed tackle on Chris Hewitt gave Matt Baxter the chance to stroke a spot-kick past keeper Andy Pryce.

Five minutes after this, Rainworth sealed the match from a good strike by Daniel Simpson.

It triggered a swift, impressive Town fight-back. But the penalty dispute and the departures of McMullen and Humphries had clearly drawn their sting.

Line said: “Overall, in the first half too, we just didn’t have enough people to dig in and do a job for us.

“Our discipline was lacking, especially at the start of the second half.”