PENALTY controversy left a sour taste in the mouth for Corsham Town boss Trevor Rawlings after his side’s defeat at resurgent Portishead Town last weekend.

In-form Portishead moved off the bottom of the Toolstation League First Division with a 2-1 win in Somerset but the officials’ contribution to their opener irked Corsham chief Rawlings.

Ed Salsbury pulled off a save to keep out the hosts from the penalty spot but the officials penalised the stand-in Corsham keeper and ordered the kick to be taken again, with Portishead successful at the second attempt.

“The manner of what happened upset me. The linesman has flagged to say Ed came off his line. It’s not something you see at our level,” said Rawlings.

“They scored from the re-take but there were four or five players up with the kicker when he took it. If you’re going to be picky, you can’t just do it in favour of the home team.

“It’s disappointing but Portishead are in-form, so we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”

Levi Cox hit his 31st goal of the season to cancel out Portishead’s controversial opener but the home side restored their lead before Corsham suffered more penalty pain.

Striker Cox dusted himself off to line-up a spot-kick after being brought down in the area but he blazed his kick over the bar to pass up the opportunity to snatch a share of the spoils for the visitors.

Corsham finish their season with two clashes against Wellington, starting with a meeting between the two sides at the Southbank next weekend.

Rawlings added: “We’ve got two tough games against Wellington but we want to try and win them.

“Our first aim in the season is to finish as the highest Wiltshire side in the league, and we will do that.

“But we need to keep looking to the future and we’ll try out a few more of the young lads in the last couple of games.”