YEOVIL Ladies’ boss Lee Burch was highly critical of referee Marc Whaley after watching the Glovers slide to a gut-wrenching late 2-1 defeat to Liverpool in the Women’s Super League.

Burch called out the officials on a number of decisions in the wake of Reds’ striker Courtney Sweetman-Kirk’s match-winning brace.

Emily Donovan had earlier equalised for Yeovil, slamming home an emphatic finish from Annie Heatherson’s scything through ball.

Yeovil’s defeat leaves the Somerset side languishing in bottom place, two points off Everton and safety from relegation.

Commenting after Yeovil’s sixth 2-1 loss of the campaign, Burch fumed at the contentious moments of the game.

He said: “I think the referee was terrible, he let us down on loads of occasions and it’s not the first time.

“I haven’t come out and spoken about officials, I don’t do that, but he really let us down.

“It wasn’t a foul for the free-kick that went in (for the winner) and there were two or three poor decisions, for me.”

He added: “They don’t even appeal and he gives that soft free-kick – he was doing it all game.

“He’s given an early yellow card and first half we could have easily had a penalty. We got a free-kick for exactly the same thing 30 seconds prior.

“It’s hard to take because I do think he influenced it in a negative way. You don’t want to talk about officials but at the end of the day when they affect the game like they have done, it’s hard to not.

“We’ve got players that are working all week, all year, who turn up and put in a performance like that and get let down.

“I have to deal with 20 players and staff that are devastated because of some of the decisions he’s made.

“We’re Yeovil, they’re Liverpool. We keep saying it, some of these Premier League badges I think some of these referees get excited by it.”

Burch did reserve praise for goalscorer Donovan, who he feels has improved markedly since the beginning of the season.

He said: “Em’s been on a real good journey and I thought her performance right across the board was excellent, she was definitely one of our better players.

“She’s been one of our best trainers for a long time and for her it was about taking those training performances into matches.

“We gave her a slightly different role and she took that on board as well. I was real pleased for Em and deserves to be talking about a point for us from a great goal from her.”