FC players vent fury over match-handling by referee

The hard-fought 1-1 draw between FC Whangarei and Oratia United at Morningside Park was marred by flaring tempers and cards being handed out left, right and centre.
Referee Mike Stather refused to say how many cards were dished out in the United Soccer 1 Championship clash on Saturday, but said they were given for  fouls and dissent.
In the clubrooms after the match, players estimated  16-18 cards had been distributed.
A usually calm FC skipper Kyle Mack was fired up after the game and said the match was managed poorly.
Mack was sent off, along with Oratia's captain Chris Irving, with 15 minutes to go after the pair received their second yellow card at the same time.
"The first one was when a guy from Oratia threw a punch at me in front of the ref, I pushed him away and got carded. The second was deserved for a late challenge," he said.
Although the game began in good spirit, things quickly got out of control when players began to doubt the referee's decisions.
He said there was a feeling among players that referees were missing things.  "Players start getting frustrated, and that's when we get penalised.
"There would not be so many cards handed out if refs were more diligent and clamped down on things earlier instead of letting things go."
Mack said six players from FC Whangarei had applied to do refereeing courses, to improve the standard in Northland. "But every time a course is planned, they turn us down for some reason."
Every time a player received a yellow card, he was fined $36 and $72.50 for red card. "It costs us - we have to pay. We can't afford to keep paying that at every home game," Mack said.
Despite all the distraction in the match, FC dominated possession during the first half, and snatched an early lead thanks to the boot of Gareth Webb.
However, after the break, Oratia's Steve Doherty equalised after he was left wide open by the Whangarei defence. Oratia sprung into action after their goal, but FC did well to keep them from scoring again. The draw left FC in seventh in the standings, with Oratia in fifth spot. Ranui Swanson top the league after six rounds.
North Force men maintained their NRFL division one lead  after nine rounds, with a 3-2 win over Hibiscus Coast at Stanmore Bay on Saturday. Skipper Scott Burgess was in form, scoring two goals for North Force, while Daniel Lavelle added a third to seal the result.
The North Force women lost their second match in the US1 Women's Championship, going down 2-4 to Forrest Hill Milford at Tikipunga Sports Park yesterday.
An own goal got them off to poor start but Estelle Harrison scored a double to get them back level at 2-2.
North Force's Dee Tunstall said: "The girls are going to be underdogs as one of the new teams in the league but I was pleased with their commitment today and we might have got a result if it wasn't for a couple of mistakes in defence.
"The main problem that we have at the moment is converting pressure and possession into goals."