Histon boss Chris Nunn felt ‘very harsh’ James Burnside red card at March Town United cost Stutes victory

Chris Nunn felt that a second-half red card denied him a first victory as Histon manager on Saturday.

In just his second game in charge of the Stutes, Nunn looked to be heading for a victory away at March Town United as goals from Danny Gould and James Burnside put the visitors in command heading into half-time.

However, Burnside was handed his marching orders after the restart and the hosts eventually made their numerical advantage count with goals from Josh Burrows and Daniel Bucciero securing a 2-2 draw.

Nunn said: “We felt in control (at half-time). We knew that March were going to come at us in the first 15 minutes of the second half.

“I was just about to take him (Burnside) off, which is ironic. I thought for some of the things that happened today, it was a very, very harsh red card.

“There was some things that happened today which were a lot worse than that. That’s football, so there’s no point talking about the referee.

“What I would say is, looking at us, we’re down to 10 men against a team who are arguably the best in the league – one of them, certainly. We’ve had to play against that, defend for our lives but then with 15 minutes left we’ve put on an extra forward, just to see if we could go and win it.

“We could have had a penalty as well – it looked like it was inside the box – but will have to look back at that one.

“Overall, if we’d have walked away from here with nothing it would have been a massive injustice. I felt we deserved to win and that the game changed on the red card, but these things happen in football – when it’s not our day, don’t make it theirs.”

Joint March boss Seb Hayes was in agreement that the dismissal of Burnside was the match’s turning point.

He said: “It’s a point gained because we were bad. If the sending off doesn’t happen we don’t get back into the game.

“That’s our get out of jail free card because he’s (Burnside) lost his head and it’s helped us. We’ve managed to actually understand that we can get back in the game and towards the end maybe we could have nicked it, but on reflection of the game we didn’t deserve it.

“They (March players) had a gameplan and they didn’t follow it. We lost our composure, lost our discipline and we’re having a real issue at the moment of moving the ball quickly with intent.

“Fair play to them, they got everyone behind the ball and got their shape, which we expected. A new manager comes in and the first thing you do is make your team hard to beat.”

Nunn will hope that it is a case of third time lucky in his pursuit of a win as Histon boss when he takes charge for the first time at Bridge Road on Saturday (October 28) against Leicester Nirvana. The visitors are the only side keeping Histon off the foot of the Uhlsport United Counties Premier Division South table.

Nirvana have won just once so far this term and are three points adrift of Nunn’s charges.