Folkestone Invicta joint-manager Micheal Everitt says the FA are putting unnecessary pressure on referees following 2-2 FA Cup draw at Margate

Folkestone joint-boss Micheal Everitt claims the FA are making life difficult for players and officials with constant rule-changing.

This season’s fad is to come down hard on time-wasting, as Invicta found to their cost in the FA Cup Second Qualifying Round at Margate.

They had left-back Ryan Khanye booked for taking too long over a throw-in with his side 1-0 up in the 35th minute.

It seemed a bizarre decision so early in the game and with Invicta comfortably the better side at the time.

And it would come back to bite them when Khanye picked up another yellow card for a 56th-minute challenge on Harrison Hatfull.

Everitt had no complaints with the second booking but was bemused by the first, adamant his man wasn’t time-wasting.

“A lot of what the referees have to do is quite hard because the FA always change the rules every single year and there’s a new initiative every single year,” said Everitt.

“They expect the referees to abide by those laws and the players to abide by those laws but half of us don’t even know what they are sometimes so I think they're putting unnecessary pressure on the refs.

“They regularly change the rules and while we go to a league meeting where they say you have to do this and you have to do that, it doesn’t always happen, or if it does happen they go overboard.

“A bit like our left-back getting booked. It’s just ridiculous.

“He’s trying to find someone’s feet and not give the ball away and they book him for time-wasting.

“It’s an absolute joke because we’ve never played like that.

“We play on the front foot, we attack teams, we want to come here and win, so that’s disappointing but that is a directive from the FA to referees, so that wasn’t the referee’s fault.”

Ibrahim Olutade met Scott