WHEN Anthony Barness gets upset, you know something is wrong.

The former Charlton, Chelsea and Bolton defender is rarely flustered and rarely overtly emotional on the football field.

So the stand-in skipper’s angry reaction to the match-turning decision at Forest Green spoke volumes.

Barness was shown a straight red card for conceding a penalty just before the half-hour mark which enabled the hosts to draw level but the decision was contentious on two fronts.

Firstly, striker Andy Mangan looked offside and, more significantly, Barness was adamant he took the ball not the man.

Referee Wayne Barrett, who had a decent view of the incident, awarded a penalty on the advice of his linesman, much to the annoyance of Lewes caretaker boss Steve Ibbitson.

He said: “I don’t like having a go at referees because they have a very difficult job. Everybody makes mistakes but even from where I was standing you could see Barny won the ball and the ball has gone in the direction he has played it.

“To me it was never a penalty and never a sending off.

“We were leading and playing well. They had a bit of pressure but we weathered that and we looked comfortable. That changed the game.”

Nobody will know what the outcome might have been had Lewes not been asked to play with a man down for more than an hour, a situation which became worse when Stefan Cox was sent off 14 minutes from time for an alleged stamp.

What is not in dispute is the spirit shown by one of the youngest sides fielded in the club’s history.

Even with 36-year-old Barness in the team the 16-man squad at The New Lawn had an average age of 19.

They were already without Chris Breach, David Wheeler and Sam Fisk when their problems were exasperated by captain Danny Cullip pulling out with tonsillitis.

It meant they took a squad including 11 teenagers, with debuts handed to new work experience signings Josh Jirbandey and Luke Rooney, as well as youth team midfielder Ben Osborn as a second-half substitute.

When Barness was dismissed, their rejigged defence included two 17-year-olds, an 18-year-old and a 19-year-old, three of whom had not started a Blue Square premier game before. The exception was Grant Hall who was making his third start.

Forest Green could have won by more in the end – they had 21 shots at goal, forced 18 corners and had two efforts disallowed – but Ibbo’s Babes could not have given their manager any more.

Ibbitson said: “I am proud of every one of them, they worked their socks off. Towards the end we had nine men and we were still trying to get forward.

“Sometimes youth can be a problem but most of the time it is good. We have not had one player in these last three or four games who we have thought is miles out of his depth.

“I just hope our luck turns because in the last couple of games Lady Luck hasn’t smiled on us.”

Lewes took a fifth-minute lead when the returning Michael Standing slipped a pass into the path of the advancing Joe Keehan who fired home low into the corner from 20 yards for his sixth goal of the season.

Forest Green, who had a strong wind behind them in the first half, applied plenty of pressure but the visitors were holding out pretty well until Barness became the second Lewes defender in as many weeks to be sent off before half-time.

Mangan got up to convert the penalty and Lee Ayres made it 2-1 six minutes later with a header at the back post after Conal Platt’s corner flew across the face of goal.

Lewes responded with Cox and Rooney going close but it was one-way traffic in the second half when the excellent Rikki Banks made a string of saves to keep the score down.

Banks protested vehemently when Mangan scored his second on 64 minutes and the same player completed a hat-trick six minutes from time after Cox had been dismissed.

Lewes: Banks; Hall, Barness, Jirbandey, Wilkinson (sub Osborn 70); Storrie, Standing, Keehan, Rooney (sub Sutton 70), Cox; Rivers (sub Foreman 79). Subs not used: Bell, Barton.

Booked: Cox (54, foul).

Sent off: Barness (28), Cox (76).

Forest Green: Burton; Jones (sub Ashford 85), Ayres, Preece, Stonehouse; Mohamed (sub Lloyd 68), Lawless, Fowler, Platt (sub Smith 68), Brown; Mangan. Subs not used: Rigoglioso, Robinson.