Bashley manager Barry Blankley had made a vow to himself not to criticise officials - but he couldn't help himself after seeing yesterday's 0-0 Eastern Division derby draw with Dorchester ruined by the man in black.

Referee Paul Brown of Taunton flashed the yellow card no fewer than nine times - four of them resulting in the dismissals of Bashley's Dave Wakefield for dissent and alleged elbowing and Magpies' defender Andy Harris for two offences on Craig Anstey.

Although neither side behaved like choirboys, it was a far from bad-tempered affair and Blankley said: "There were two good sides out there, but the officials were absolutely terrible and didn't let anything flow, which was a great shame.

"You expect some blood and thunder in a local derby, but although this was a bit niggly there was nothing out of order and it's a shame that someone like that was put in charge of such an important game.

"Dave Wakefield has never been booked in his life and yet he ended up getting sent off."

With Bash striker Paul Sales again sidelined by groin trouble, his young understudy Stuart Cooper's attempted lob was tipped over at full stretch by Magpies keeper Mark Ormerod after 12 minutes.

The remainder of the half was scrappy, but Dorchester missed two dream chances before the break with Matt Groves failing to connect with Matt Hann's flick from Justin Keeler's tenacious cross and then Matt Lonnon heading wide after keeper Steve Staples had missed Matty Holmes's corner.

Wakefield's 61st-minute dismissal was followed six minutes later by a red for Harris.

The frenetic pace dropped late on as both teams tried to protect what they'd got, but Bash so nearly won it when substitute Ben Thomson squared for Stuart Hussey who forced another fine save from Ormerod.