ON the night that Stourport Swifts secured an excellent 1-0 victory over third-placed Weston-super-Mare, it was a pity that all the talk was of referee Hardip Singh and his hapless assistants.

The 'men in black' infuriated the home crowd by allowing Weston goalkeeper Mark Bryant to stay on the pitch after he had taken out Swifts striker Kerry Giddings who had left the visitors' defence trailing in his wake.

And worse was to follow when former Southampton and Bristol Rovers midfielder Frankie Bennett kicked out at Stourport's Adam Nicholls - an attack that appeared to have been seen by everyone apart from the three who mattered.

To cap a miserable night for Mr Singh, Giddings was then sent off in the closing minutes after collecting a second booking for kicking the ball away.

Swifts manager Tim Langford said: "All three of them have missed blatant bookings and possibly blatant sendings-off. In the end, Kerry has got sent off for something really trivial.

"But I don't really want to detract from how well the 11 - and Andy Bradley when he came on - have played. They worked their socks off and worked hard for each other."

Swifts dominated the early part of the game with Jan Mulders seeing a seventh minute header cleared off the line and Andy Wright volleying just wide eight minutes later.

Giddings was denied by a fine Bryant save on 20 minutes but three minutes later the Swifts were ahead. A Mike Kilgour clearance was punted straight back by Asa Charlton and Wright out-paced the defence before firing home.

Bryant stopped Matt Beard from adding a second on the half-hour but his reckless challenge stopped Giddings from adding number two ten minutes after the break.

Wright then crashed a volley against the upright on 77 minutes.

Swifts: Clarke 7, Mulders 8, S Wright 6, Marsh 6, Davies 8, T Nicholls 6, Beard 6 (Bradley 69, 6), A Nicholls 6, Giddings 6, A Wright 7 (Edwards 90), Charlton 7.