It was what Gary Setchell refused to say that spoke volumes after King's Lynn Town's narrow FA Trophy defeat.

The Linnets conceded a controversial penalty in the last 10 minutes on their way to a 1-0 loss against Conference North Harrogate Town in the third qualifying round. And while everyone was keen to have their say on referee Anthony Da Costa's inept display, Lynn's boss did his best to hide an evident sense of anger.

The Lynn boss, taking charge of his 250th match, said: 'I'm not going to talk about him, I'm not going to talk about him.

'Because one, I don't want to get myself in any sort of trouble and two, I don't want to make it look like sour grapes. You've asked me the question for a reason. The 700-odd that was here know what the match official was like.

'I don't want to get involved in it. It looks like you're sore losers.'

Setchell did eventually admit he felt the visitors had been awarded a 'soft penalty' but stopped short of hitting out at the moment which cost his side a replay they, at the bare minimum, deserved.

Harrogate keeper Phil Barnes was worked more than opposite number Alex Street, who gave the penalty away, as the Evo-Stik Premier Division side more than held their own against a team that play a level above them in the non-league ladder.

'I think we were better than them, we had the lion's share of possession and chances and two good penalty shouts,' added Lynn's manager.

'For their penalty, I thought Pedro (Street) just totally took the ball off the lad's feet (Walshaw). If he's brought him down he's got to red card him. He's got to be last man. So when they don't do that, it makes you think they're not sure.

'But I don't want to get drawn down that line. I want to say how pleased and proud I was of my players. They gave me everything we've got.

'I always drill into my players that you get what you deserve from the game but unfortunately we didn't get what we deserved as we deserved to at least get another crack at them (replay).

'We've robbed a lot of people late on and it's horrible when it happens to you. I'm disappointed because I think my players deserved more.'