AFC Totton 8 Bradford Park Avenue 1: Apology is accepted after racist abuse from ‘mindless idiots’

Somerset official Johnson dismissed Richard Marshall in the first few minutes for shoving Totton’s Tom Baddeley and Martin Drury got his red card for dissent in the second half when the score was 5-1.

Hume, Park Avenue’s mouthpiece in place of dejected manager John Deacy, refused to blame the referee directly for his team’s drubbing.

But he said: “Maybe on another day when the cameras are not there, perhaps he might have shown Marshall a yellow card. But in front of the cameras the referee has got no option.

“You can’t push somebody and expect to get away with it.’’

Hume also indicated that Park Avenue officials and players had been subjected to racist comments but would not be complaining.

Referee Johnson said he had received no complaints and would not be making a note of it in his report.

Hume said: “There were a few racist comments made to our bench which we were not happy with but we will not be making a big noise about it. I don’t want to cloud Totton’s day.

“The stewards ejected one or two people but we will not be making anything of it. One of their supporters came up to me afterwards and apologised for what had been said. He is a representative of the real fans, not the tiny minority of mindless idiots.’’

Substitute Stefan Brown scored three, Mike Gosney and Jonathan Davies two each and Michael Charles got the other for Southampton docks-based side and Adam Clayton got Avenue’s.

AFC Totton: Porter; Hill, Baddeley, Campbell, Whisken; Scott (Richardson 77), Pettefer, Davies, Sherbourne (Osman 68); Charles (Brown 56), Gosney. Unused substitutes: Casey, Lewis, Oldring, Coutts.

Bradford Park Avenue: Lamb; Clayton, Drury, O’Brien, Iqbal; Riley, Daly (Deacy 46), Hotte, Marshall; Greaves (Ahmed 70), Boshell (Beadle 22). Unused substitutes: Lydon, Knowles, Duckworth, Law.

Referee: K Johnson (Somerset).

Man of the match: Stefan Brown.