Burnham Ramblers manager Keith Wilson admits that he has been left questioning his involvement in football following an FA hearing that banned him from the game for six weeks.

Wilson was called in front of an Essex FA hearing to answer a charge of violent conduct against an official after an incident following Ramblers’ Essex Senior League 2-1 defeat by Barking on February 13.

The Burnham boss had been accused of pushing the ball into the chest of the referee at the final whistle, but while Wilson admitted that he had handed it to the official, he strenuously denied that it had been done with any aggression at all.

He said forward movement of the referee had made it appear more forceful than it was.

So after the hearing found him guilty and imposed a six-game ban, which Wilson had already served by the time of the hearing, and a £30 fine, Wilson said he felt disillusioned by the process.

He said: “I’m not happy with the outcome at all because I’ve been found guilty.

“The punishment was probably the least that they could have given me and that shows that it was nothing, but I have been found guilty.

“The incident was literally nothing.

“I gave him the ball back and I admitted that it made contact with his chest, but there’s no way that it was malicious or aggressive.

“The FA have their Respect campaign for players towards officials, but it feels like it’s a one-way street.

“This has tarnished my reputation and that’s hard to take.

“I’ve been involved in non-league football for 21 years, I got sent off twice in my playing career, but now I’m tarnished with assaulting an official.

“That’s not me at all – when there’s a fight, I’m the one holding the coats.

“I could understand it if I was an aggressive person, but I’m not.

“I was honest in the hearing and I told them that the ball did touch the referee and that’s what I got.

“I could have denied it and it would have been his word against mine, but I haven’t been brought up to lie and I told the truth.

“It has left a bitter taste and it does leave me questioning my place in football.

“If this is the way it is going, then do I want to be involved?

“If I now ever say anything out of turn, I have this hanging over me.

“It’s like being a criminal and it could come up again big time.

“I have a respectable job and two young children and I try to be a good role model to young players, but this has tarnished me and it has also tarnished the football club, which is the last thing I would want.

“The way I’ve been left feeling and if I’m being honest, it may take one or two very persuasive people to make me want to carry on.”