St John's Michael Agrela drives hard at the Trinity defence Picture: JON GUEGAN (00854910)

A HOTLY-disputed free kick resulted in St John scoring a late goal to beat Trinity 3-2 in the opening preliminary round match in the Trinity Shield at Les Quennevais last night.

With the scores tied at 2-2, referee Neil Giannoni penalised Trinity defender James Ollivro for a foul and the player reacted by talking his way into a couple of cautions which led to him being sent off.

Trinity manager Martyn Stratford said: ‘The free kick should have been for us but incredibly the referee gave it against us. James was trying to make his point but the referee would not listen and he sent him off as a result of something he said.

‘One bad decision ruined the game for us because St John scored from the resultant free kick and it turned out to be the winning goal. They played the free kick short and the guy mishit it and it flew into a far corner.

‘I’m really disappointed because there was not a bad tackle in the game the referee has sent off one of our players and cautioned several others. It was a great shame because for the last 30 minutes we were looking like the team that was going to score the winning goal.’