Whitstable Town boss Marcel Nimani calls for officiating standards in the Southern Counties East Premier Division to be debated after contentious calls in goalless draw at Bearsted

Whitstable boss Marcel Nimani says “the gloves are off” as he called for a debate over the standard of some of the officiating in the Southern Counties East Premier Division this season.

Nimani’s Oystermen are level on points with fifth-placed Bearsted after they played out a goalless weekend draw against their hosts.

That followed last Wednesday’s 1-0 victory at another play-off chasing side, Snodland, when striker Harvey Smith scored.

Whitstable had fallen victim to a controversial offside call in last month’s 1-1 home draw with Punjab United - Nimani was reluctant at the time to be too critical - but he feels enough is enough and things need to change after more controversy at Bearsted.

Reflecting on that goalless stalemate, he said: “There were two sides to it.

“The first side is that, with our new patterns, it’s very pleasing that we were still productive on the ball and created chances. That’s something that’s in our control.

“But it doesn’t matter how many chances you create if you’re not taking them. The first half was quite an even game at Bearsted.

“In the second half, we recycled the ball better - but I think the gloves are off now. We had three [incorrect] offside calls in 18 minutes in the second half on Saturday.

“In two of them, two defenders are playing them on! It’s just not acceptable.

“To add insult to injury, we were denied a stonewall penalty in the second half, to the extent the opposition bench were laughing.

“The penalty, you can kind of swallow it because it’s subjective. But it needs to change.

“On reflection, some officials’ calls have cost us a lot of points this season.”

Nimani brought his own ideas to the table around what could be done to help solve the issue.

He’s open to any suggestions