Worcester City goalkeeper Nathan Vaughan 'tried to bite' Rossi Jarvis in the incident that saw both players sent off amid ugly scenes at Crown Meadow.

Blues joint boss Ady Gallagher said the visitors' shot-stopper 'lost his head' in the aftermath of Jake Reed's equaliser, clashing with Jarvis as both players saw red in the closing stages.

Asked about the incident, Gallagher said: 'He (Jarvis) has said the goalkeeper has lost his head and he has got him in a head lock and, the players have verified it as well, that he is trying to bite his face. There is no place for that.

'If anyone has got any footage of it then I would be interested to see it. The referee obviously wasn't in an angle where he could see that.

'All he could see is Rossi trying to force his way off the goalkeeper. It's frustrating – those types of things are really frustrating.'

Worcester boss Carl Heeley admitted the incident did nothing for the image of non-league football.

'We are 30 or 40 yards away ourselves and it's impossible for us to see what happened clearly,' he said. 'It looks terrible when there are 20-22 footballers pushing and shoving.

'The referee has seen two players deserving of red cards, one of them being our goalkeeper, but I think it looks a lot worse than it actually was when you break it all down.'

The incident marred a day which saw the Blues take another step towards Conference North survival thanks to Reed's last gasp strike. It looked like being a bitterly disappointing day for the Trawlerboys, who went behind in the 68th-minute to Daniel Nti's clever header.

But Lowestoft ploughed on and, through pure endeavour, rescued a point, which keeps them a safe distance away from the relegation zone.

'We've scored late goals a few times this season – it's the type of spirit that the lads have got,' said Gallagher, whose side head to struggling Leamington this afternoon (kick-off 3pm). 'We're never dead and we will always go to the last second to try and get something out of the game.

'It was a deserved point I felt, mainly for our first-half performance. In the second half I don't think we were anywhere near the same level – that's something we are going to need to put right.'