Steve Holder felt his side were hard done by as 10-man Hadleigh slipped up 2-1 at home against lowly Kirkley & Pakefield.

Brettsiders left back Jake Eady was shown a red card, after already getting a yellow a few minutes earlier by referee Kevin Harrington, before the visitors netted against the run of play through Ben George.

Jake Eady sees red (Picture: Ian Evans)

Although Jack Baker equalised after a well-worked short corner involving substitute Tom Warren on the stroke of half time.

Hadleigh could not find the winner, despite looking far more threatening in the second half.

Instead, they were hit with a sucker punch as Joel Watts hit the winner five minutes from time for the Royals.

"We were unlucky to not even get a point," groaned Holder. "We dominated the play with 10 men.

"The referee was poor in my opinion. If he had got hold of the game early on when there were five or six blatant booking offences (committed by Kirkley) but we find ourselves down to 10 men but the ref had taken control of the game that would not have happened.

"You can't blame him but I felt we did enough to get a point but some poor defending at the end has cost us."

Steve Holder (Picture: Ian Evans)

Despite being down at the defeat, Holder is confident his side has the character to bounce back against Long Melford in the Suffolk Premier Cup at Millfield on Tuesday, then a home league game against Ely City next Saturday.

"I would be worried if we were not playing well, but we are still playing well," said Holder. "It is just the second defeat at home all season so we will go again on Tuesday.

"We need to dig even deeper against these teams near the bottom.

"We have had great season so far but you get games like that. We will stay positive and get the points."

Footballer stepping into boxing ring for charity.