Essex Senior League: Woodford Town 1 Hashtag United 3

Woodford Town were left ruing a controversial refereeing display after finishing Friday's encounter with Hashtag with just nine men.

The Woods had put in a determined display against their high flying opponents in front of a seasons best and very noisy crowd of 235 at the Harlow Arena.

Hashtag started the game brightly and took the lead after five minutes as Woods started slowly.

To their credit Roy Darbo and Joe Gadsdon's side responded in great style with 18-year -old youth team starlet Reece Antione-DeCosta giving an experienced 'Tag' back line a torrid time.

Fittingly it was DeCosta who grabbed a deserved equaliser on 27 minutes after a devastating counter attack slotting the ball past the keeper for a fine individual goal.

Hashtag restored their lead shortly before half time but Woodford always looked capable of springing a surprise and had two penalty appeals turned down with seconds when the ball seemed to strike a defenders arm in the penalty area.

True to The Woods current form Hashtag broke and the ball was deemed to have struck the onrushing Alex Reed's arm outside the penalty area in an almost carbon copy incident which saw the home keeper shown a red card.

Despite superb vocal backing from the home faithful The Woods were unable to mount a grandstand finish as stand in keeper Tyler Fowles injured himself in conceding a last minute penalty and is likely to miss Tuesday's 'must win' trip to Southend Manor.