When I see referees being discussed each week I wince a little.

We are Bostik league managers, with Bostik League players and, as a consequence, have Bostik league referees. We can’t expect perfection when we are imperfect ourselves.

Clearly, owing to the nature of this weekend’s decision to send Jamie Dicks off, it’s unavoidable to discuss.

I spoke with the referee after the game and, to his credit, he was happy to have a conversation.

He maintained his belief that he had been tripped on purpose and I expressed my belief that the collision was accidental. Thankfully the ‘Back of the Net’ production team were there and have the incident on film so we have the ability to make an appeal at least.

Do I feel the incident could have been handled better? Yes, of course, but it is what it is and I’m 100 per cent sure that the referee did what he thought was right.

Regarding the game itself, it’s difficult to say whether it cost us or not. I think it would be disrespectful to Maldon to insinuate such a thing. We were 1-0 down and it wasn’t the referee’s fault we started the game sloppily.

After going a goal down early I was happy with our reaction and felt we were growing into the game nicely before the red card. But I am certain that being 2-0 down at Maldon with only 10 men on the pitch is a situation not many teams will be able to earn points from.

Looking ahead we host Dereham tonight who put six past Grays on Saturday. Every game is massive and we need 82 points to confirm a play-off place and currently have 77.

Dereham are a play-off rival so it would be nice to get a positive result in such a big game.

Potters Bar Town look out of reach to me. They have won eight of their last nine games and are in the form of their lives. On the back of that run at this stage they deserve the second automatic promotion place.