PETERSFIELD Town manager Mark Summerhill defended key player Matt Low after his side exited the FA Vase with a 2-1 defeat against Roman Glass St George last Tuesday night.

The Rams were 1-0 up with 14 minutes to go, but Low was sent to the sin bin and the visitors scored two goals in the next ten minutes to knock the Rams out.

“We were fortunate to go 1-0 up with a freak free kick, but we should have then gone two or three up,” said Summerhill.

“We were well worth being 1-0 up at half time.

“The second half was very even really. We just started to run out of steam late on, but I could see us hanging on at 1-0.

“We were still creating chances and had a threat, but the second Matt Low went off the field we lost our threat.

“We didn’t weather that storm, but when Matt came back on we had chances.

“Against the better teams the fine margins matter.

“It’s a shame, but I’m proud of the lads and very pleased we got that far.”

Summerhill admitted Low’s sin binning cost his side, but he still leapt to the defence of his player.

“Matt getting sent to the sin bin cost us,” said Summerhill.

“Matt had his legs swiped and he reacted angrily. The referee had taken a lot of language from the opposition, but Matt was in the wrong and gave the referee the opportunity to sin bin him.

“It cost us, but Matt knows it and apologised. He was bitterly disappointed. He really cares about the club and if he had his time again I’m sure he wouldn’t do it.

“Professional players can lose their cool, let alone lads who are playing football for the love of it.”

The Rams were missing several key players for the Roman Glass St George game, and Summerhill rued not having more options for the game.

He said: “Kris Stevens and Will Essai were both big misses for us, and Harry Tremlett failed his fitness test.

“We had five people out and that was a step too far. We needed fresh legs to come on and just didn’t have them.

“I’m bitterly disappointed but proud of our achievements. It was a close game, and you never know if we had taken our chances at 1-0.

“It felt like a missed opportunity with them coming here on a Tuesday night.

“I’m heartbroken we’ve been knocked out, but realistically at some stage we would have met a team who were better than us.”