Salisbury City boss Darrell Clarke 'disgusted' by penalty decision

Boss Darrell Clarke has expressed his anger at the late penalty given against Salisbury in their Blue Square Bet South play-off semi-final first leg at Chelmsford on Tuesday.

Ricky Wellard was adjudged to have handled in the area, and Anthony Cook slotted in the 89th minute spot-kick to earn the Clarets a 1-0 win.

"I'm disgusted," the Whites manager told BBC Wiltshire.

"It's hard for me to take. My boys out there are heroes."

He continued: "The only reason we lost the game was because of a diabolical handball decision.

"Is my player going to deliberately handball in the box in the 87th minute? The rules of the game state it has to be deliberate. The referee admitted it wasn't deliberate and still gave the penalty.

"And you wonder why players, managers and coaches get frustrated with decisions like that."

Salisbury, who finished second in the standings at the end of the regular season, will now look to overturn to deficit at home in the second leg on Saturday.

"The game is nowhere near over," added Clarke. "Respect to Chelmsford, they put us under pressure with the way they deliver balls into the box but we defended to a man superbly. We were robbed by a decision.

"We want to get the Ray Mac full on Saturday to get behind the team because these boys deserve to play in the final."