ANDY Leese was left incredulous as his Chesham United side were denied a penalty that would have given them the chance to claim a second win in two games.

He went to the referee's room post match to seek an answer and was left unhappy with the explanation he got for the decision.

The Generals boss said it was an "absolute cast iron penalty" and came minutes after his side had been pegged back by AFC Totton on Tuesday night.

Leese said: "I broke with tradition and went to the referee's room afterwards for an explanation.

"We broke from midfield, James Potton slipped the ball through and Simon Thomas got the right side and had his legs taken out by a defender.

"The ref's claimed another of our players pushed the defender into Simon, which was just incredulous.

"He pointed as if it was a penalty and their goalkeeper, their players, everyone thought it was a penalty but he then pointed the other way for a foul by Simon.

"They said at the end it felt like a win for them and it certainly felt like a defeat for us."

That incident came in the fifth minute of injury time, moments after Totton had levelled the scores at 1-1.

Thomas had given Chesham an early lead and they looked like they were going to hold out until Totton - the side that denied United in the Southern League play-offs last season - equalised in the last minute of normal time.

Leese felt his side were worthy of the win: "It was a classic away performance until the last few minutes when we invited a bit of pressure and a long-range free-kick took a huge deflection for them.

"We've spoken over the summer and worked in some detail about how we perform away from home and the disciplines we need. We worked on what to do when we go a goal to the good and we've understood it."

Despite that late setback the Generals boss is happy with the start his side have made, having picked up an opening day home victory over St Neots.

They had to come from behind to see off the newly promoted side, who scored 115 goals on their way to winning the championship last season, as Bruce Wilson and Chris Watters netted in a 2-1 win.

Leese said: "You're not quite sure what you're going to get against a promoted team and we had to work extremely hard.

"If you win your home games and draw away, across the course of the season you won't be far off where you want to be."

They go to Barwell - top of the table after two matches - on Saturday before hosting St Albans City on Monday.