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Westley: Henry 'shocked'

Image: Graham Westley: Rules are confusing

Graham Westley revealed the police are looking into an accusation from Ronnie Henry that he was bitten in their 1-0 loss Dagenham.

Luke Howell's fifth goal of the season earned Daggers their second win in a row and saw Stevenage drop out of the top seven. But the alleged clash between Joss Labadie and Henry, shortly before full-time, was the major talking point at the Lamex Stadium. Westley said: "I think it has become a police matter and when it becomes a police matter anybody in a responsible position should let it be dealt with by the authorities. "So in passing comment, word is around the place, that there's been an incident and the police are involved. "He's not in a good situation, he's in the treatment room and he's suffered quite a nasty injury. "Ronnie was in a state of shock, you don't go on a football pitch expecting to lose your finger and Ronnie was horrified by what has gone on because it's a football match and he's nearly lost his finger. "For the goal, for an official to put his flag up and then stop, give an offside decision, for the back four to clearly be affected and then the ball to be run in your net and then allowed is disappointing. The rules are confusing." The game had already threatened to boil over before Labadie and Henry's clash due to the nature of the goal. Labadie was clearly offside when a long ball was played forwards in his direction, yet he did not touch it, Christian Doidge took over and crossed for Howell to score. But only after long consultation with his assistant did referee Dean Whitestone award the goal. Daggers boss Wayne Burnett said: "It's a difficult decision. I haven't seen it so I can't really comment on it but there was a lot of controversy. "But he's given it and that's the rules, are you interfering with play, or are you not interfering with play. I didn't really see it and I don't want to comment on it because it would be unfair at this present time. "It was a very good performance. We changed the team because it wasn't conducive to how we wanted to try and play and I left our top goalscorer out, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but today it has worked. "We had the wind against us and the players said at half-time that the wind was a bit of a factor and we can't play on this pitch. We played some okay football at times but we know we can do better, we played the conditions."

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