Danny Potter was sent off after 26 minutes on Monday after he was deemed to have brought Ebbsfleet's John Akinde down in the area and will be suspended for Saturday's match.

The U's keeper felt the teenage striker 'played for' the penalty and described the incident thus: "Their lad came through one on one and took it round me, and my hands have not moved from where the ball was. He then played for the penalty by leaving his leg in and kicked my arm leaving a hell of a lump where he made contact.

"But that's what strikers do - he's played for it and it's come off for him and that's helped them win the game.

"We are really disappointed we've held on for so long but lost it to another bad goal from our point of view. I've got to say Mark Peters has stepped in and done fantastically well, and credit to the rest of the lads who've worked so hard to a man, but it's one of those things sometimes - you don't get what you deserve."

Veteran defender Mark Peters stepped off the bench to replace the unfortunate Lee Boylan and take over in goal, and he revealed that it has given him an insight into the difficulty of the goalkeeper's job.

"It's not the first time I've been between the sticks and there were a couple of times at Rushden when unsurprisingly Billy Turley saw red, but never for so long before - just a couple of 15 to 20 minute spells. It's difficult because you are in a foreign environment and it just makes you appreciate even more what a hard job goalkeepers do.

"The penalty was well taken - I'd made my mind up which way I was going but he put it just out of my reach - but following that there wasn't too much pressure on me. Only in the second half did they spread the ball across the pitch and stretch us and the winner came from that, but I thought the lads with ten men showed a tremendous level of work rate.

"We looked very good with ten men and Wayne (Hatswell)'s goal was well deserved, and he could have levelled it at 2-2 in the second half and that would've been no more than we and the fans behind that goal deserved."

Adding his praise for the 470 travelling supporters, who made Stonebridge Road sound like the Abbey Stadium at times, Peters continued, "We are always praising them to anyone who'll listen and they deserve every bit of the praise.

"Home and away they are different class and back us all the way, and I'm sure that's part of the reason that we are where we are and the least they deserve is to see us finish the job in the play-offs.

"We are disappointed at the moment, but looking back there will be lots of positives to take out of tonight and into Saturday's game. We've never beaten Kidderminster but we've broken records like that this season so what better way to get back on track?"

Interview by David Gray

United are next in action at home to Kidderminster Harriers on Saturday at 3pm.

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