Bucks boss behind Budtz, despite costly red card

Their Boxing Day derby at Matlock Town ended 3-3 with both sides losing a player to a red card.

But the loss of keeper Budtz saw defender Joe Maguire have to take over between the posts and two stoppage time goals for Matlock earned them an unlikely point.

Budtz was alleged to have kicked Matlock’s Michael Williams on the floor.

But McIntosh said: “I don’t know what Jan did – I have not seen the incident.

“At 2-0 and 3-1 we were cruising, but when you lose your goalkeeper with half-an-hour to go, you’re always going to have problems.

“If Jan has struck out or kicked a player then that goes a big way to helping the opposition.

“I haven’t spoken with him about it yet. The heat of the moment after a game is never the time to discuss these things.

“For me Jan is probably one of the best goalkeepers in the league. He has been absolutely brilliant for me.

“Everyone makes mistakes. If he has made a mistake then we are all human. I will back him all the way.”

He added: “The referee added on six or seven minutes and with your centre half in goal, you’re always going to be under pressure.

“No way would we have not won that game if we’d still got our goalkeeper on the field. We were by far the best side - by a country mile.

“They rarely threatened us until the referee gave them a penalty that never was.”

McIntosh was very unhappy with the overall performance of referee Andrew Smith.

“It was really eventful with a lot of incidents, but I don’t think the decisions were too kind on us to be honest,” he said.

“At 2-0 the penalty Matlock were awarded was completely beyond me.

“I couldn’t believe it. It was never a penalty and it was a shocking decision.

“The one in the first half where Luke Hinsley was brought down was way more a penalty than that one. They got theirs, we didn’t get ours.

“For me there were just so many decisions we didn’t get and the referee didn’t want to speak to me after the game either.”

Buxton now prepare to take on Halesowen away on Saturday before a home game with Ashton on New Year’s Day (3pm).

“It’s two more games in three days but it’s the same for everyone,” said McIntosh.

“We are looking forward to them. I think we are playing well as a team and we are going into every game confident.

“It’s just these draws at the moment that we need to turn into wins.”

McIntosh will be looking to Saturday’s hat-trick hero Liam Hardy to keep the goals flying in.

“When you’ve got Liam Hardy up front, he is absolutely unplayable and against Matlock he was too much for them,” he said.