The moment which 'ruined' Horndean's stalemate derby meeting with 10-man AFC Portchester

The Deans failed to find a way through the Royals at Five Heads Park despite the visitors having Steve Ramsey sent off inside two minutes as it ended goalless.

Even Birmingham admitted Ramsey's dismissal for his heavy tackle on Alfie Lis was slightly 'harsh'. From that point, the derby battle became a bitty affair with very few chances at either end as both sides managed to shut each other out.

But Birmingham felt the game was 'ruined' by referee Jordan McRitchie's early call to send Ramsey off.

The Deans boss said: ‘Do I think it was a sending off? I think it was a little bit harsh, to be honest, especially after two minutes.

‘Do I think the officials ruined the game? I’d probably have to say yes it was ruined (because of sending off).

‘I’m not saying the referee was the reason my players couldn’t switch the ball or move the ball quicker - I’m not saying that at all.

‘I just think the sending off after two minutes has set that and then there was a lot of screaming, shouting and rolling around. It is was it is.’

This was the third time Horndean and Portchester have met already this season, with the Royals running out 4-2 winners in an FA Cup meeting at the OnSite Group Stadium in August before Birmingham's men bagged a 3-1 league triumph at the same ground last month.

There were to be no goals in this one, though, with Ramsey's early dismissal the only real flashpoint.

But despite not being able to find a way through 10-man Portchester, Birmingham was more than happy with a point.

He said: ‘At the end of the day - the boys were a little bit downbeat - there’s no need to be downbeat, we’ve taken four points off what was the well-fancied team at the start of the season. We would have taken that at the start of the season.

‘With the players I didn’t have available as well - we were lacking a little bit of strength in depth - if you’d said to me 0-0 at the start of the game I would have taken it.

‘We had players forced off through injury, Alfie Lis, who’s a good player, that was Fuzz’s (Kanjanda) first game for a while so he had cramp. You had Louie Martin out there for the first time in a long time so he was cramping as well.’