Wingate & Finchley manager Spencer Knight says the referee killed the game for them as they suffered a 3-2 defeat to Carshalton Athletic.

The Blues struck on 18 minutes when Johnville Renee but then Athletic scored three times before the hosts netted a second through Oluwaseun Akinsanya.

Carshalton's equaliser was with a penalty thanks to Paris Hamilton-Downes three minutes into the second-half that boss Knight refused to believe should have been given.

"They're a decent, no doubt about that, especially at home they're good but I thought we went there with a game plan and set up really well for the first-half," Knight said.

"We defended solidly and looked really dangerous on the break every time we went forward.

"I would say we were very unfortunate to only be one in front at half-time, and one is a very fragile lead for us at the minute, so we always need to be getting that second or third when we're on top and we didn't manage to do that.

"We conceded a penalty within the first minute of the second-half, I saw it live and knew it wasn't a penalty at the time, and then I've seen it back on the video several times since and it's definitely not a penalty.

"The referee has killed us on that one and I suppose the run of form we've been on once we conceded one it was always going to be an uphill task from then on.

"They got their tails up and they're a good team when you give them confidence which the referee managed to do in the end."

Wingate also suffered a 3-1 defeat to crash out of the Velocity Trophy to league rivals Margate.

But Knight insists it was more about experimenting with a few new players and fringe players.

"I made seven or eight changes and not for any other reason than I need to freshen up the squad by looking at different options.

"I still wanted to win the game obviously, but from my perspective, I had some boys that needed a rest as well some of our key players were unavailable.

"If I'm honest though the boys that came in weren't good enough, so no complaints with the result, the players that we brought in and gave them an opportunity didn't take it generally.

"No complaints on being knocked out of the competition, Margate were by far the better team on the night.

"There was only a couple positives for me, one was Jake Eales coming back from a long-term injury, I thought he was excellent and got through 90 minutes.

"We had a young goalkeeper on work experience from Ipswich Town and I thought he did well and Alphanso Kennedy had a decent game considering he's been in and out of the team.

"Apart from that I'm struggling to find many more positives, so some of them boys won't play for us again, that was their opportunity and they failed to take it.

"We need to be ruthless with players now and if they're not good enough get better ones in."