Peter Smith was sent off last night as Albion Reserves crashed to a 6-0 defeat against Watford at Woodside Road.

Smith received his marching orders from referee Steve Tomlin after half an hour for handling Tommy Smith's goalbound shot on the line.

Tomlin, a firefighter from Lewes, had no option under the rules because Smith had prevented an obvious goalscoring opportunity.

From that moment on Albion's hopes of consecutive combination wins for the first time in 17 months went up in flames.

An automatic one-match ban is another body blow for the unfortunate Smith, who has just lost his place in the first team.

His third red card as an Albion player was inevitable once his Watford namesake had skipped round both him and goalkeeper Mark Ormerod and he racked back to block the shot.

No blame can be attached to Tomlin. Former Premiership referee Martin Bodenham, now an assessor, would have marked him down otherwise.

But it seems a daft rule, because Albion were effectively punished twice. Tommy Smith made sure of that by tucking away the penalty arising from the infringement.

Any hopes Albion's ten men had of getting back into the match were dashed when Peter Montgomery had a header from a John Westcott corner blocked on the line early in the second half. Watford went straight up the other end to double their lead, Nick Wright cutting inside the area to score with a left foot drive.

Colin Pluck and Gifton Noel-Williams made it 4-0 from a couple of Daniel Grieves corners.

Noel-Williams and Wright completed the wrought with further goals in the final ten minutes.

Albion Reserves: Ormerod; Hinshelwood, Francis, Ansah, Smith, Hobson, Westcott, Mayo, Streeter, Montgomery, Storer. Subs, McCarthur for Francis (withdrawn 63), Ramsay, Winter.

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