Eastbourne Borough boss Garry Wilson refused to blame the referee after a hotly disputed penalty deprived his side of two more home points against crisis club Chester City.

Borough players protested fiercely that keeper Michael Jordan had made contact with the ball and not the ankle of Neil Ashton on the edge of the six-yard box.

There appeared little danger on the stroke of half-time as Marc Pullan tried to shield the ball following a backpass from Simon Weatherstone. But Ashton nipped in and went down as the keeper dived to flick the ball away and Essex referee Mr J.D. Watkins had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.

Jordan and skipper Paul Armstrong were booked in the arguments that followed and Greg Blundell levelled the scores with a perfectly taken penalty.

Wilson, however, refused to heap all the blame on the official. “Our keeper was adamant that he took the ball,” he insisted. “But we are faced with these decisions every single week.

“We cannot keep talking about officials. If we try to pass our way out of trouble in the box anything can happen. We have to accept that it has happened and we have to get on with it. If we had done our job properly, the official would not have had to make a decision at all.

“Overall, we did not make their keeper work hard enough. We didn’t really make it pay in the box and they made it difficult for us to create any space.”

Head coach Nick Greenwood added: “Going a goal up so early should have been a platform to win the game. It is two points lost and our own fault.”

Borough suffered a double blow before the game with in-form striker Jamie Taylor taken ill and Ben Austin failing a late fitness test on a knee injury.

Armstrong took over Austin’s role on the right with the fit-again Neil Jenkins resuming at left-back. Liam Enver-Marum came in to partner Andy Atkin up front.

Despite their problems, though, Borough got off to an ideal start with a goal in the fifth minute. Poor Chester defending allowed Jordan’s huge wind-assisted clearance to find its way to Matt Crabb on the left and a rapid low cross left Atkin with the simplest of finishes six yards out.

Generally, Eastbourne’s back four kept the Chester strikers well under control, but as has so often has been the case this season, the best goal attempts at the other end came from Simon Weatherstone whose 20-yarder sent visiting keeper John Danby diving to his left to pull off a superb save. Soon after a Weatherstone lob from 18 yards had the keeper at full stretch.

Borough looked set to go in at half-time with a goal advantage, but were shellshocked as they left the field after the equalising penalty.

They came out in the second half full of fight, however. A series of near misses saw Nathan Crabb inches wide from 20 yards, a close-range Atkin effort was deflected for a corner by Tim Ryan and Weatherstone was a whisker away from what would have been a deserved winner.

Borough also had their own moments of anxiety when Chester looked dangerous on the break, none more so than when Anthony Barry’s free-kick was back headed by Jenkins and the ball bounced off the top of the bar.

In a final flourish Atkin hit the foot of the post as Borough waved goodbye to two more home points. They have now dropped seven in their opening five home games, but perhaps an even more worrying fact was the third Priory Lane crowd of below 1,000. Only once did that happen last season.

Eastbourne (4-4-2): Jordan, Jenkins, Pullan, Elphick, Brown, Armstrong (Baker 75) Enver-Marum (Smith 63), M Crabb, Weatherstone, Atkin, N Crabb. Subs not used: Knowles, Smart, Johnson.

Booked: Armstrong, Jordan, Brown Chester (4-4-2): Danby, Roberts, Lea, Meynell (Kelly 65), Ryan, Lynch, Barry, Kay (Wilkinson 83), Ashton, Chadwick, Blundell. Subs not used: Murphy, Ellams, Rule.