Eastbourne Borough were involved in another refereeing rumpus as they let a two-goal lead slip in last night’s rearranged Blue Square premier game at Moss Lane.

Referee Tony Harrington, who infuriated Borough by controversially postponing the original fixture in February, caused a six-minute hold-up after retiring with an apparent injury in the 52nd minute.

His replacement, Mark Hughes, awarded a hotly-disputed free-kick that led to Altrincham’s 69th-minute equaliser and baffled both camps by playing a remarkable 15 minutes of added time.

Jack Jeffery began where he left off against Weymouth, firing Borough into a deserved eighth-minute lead.

The on-loan West Ham striker tested Altrincham keeper Stuart Coburn with a 25-yard drive in the second minute and might have scored seconds later, had Nathan Crabb spotted him unmarked on the edge of the area.

There was no mistake soon after, as Jeffery justified his promotion to the starting line-up with an unstoppable volley from eight yards. The 19-year-old fastened on to a header by Marc Pullan and lashed a first-time effort in off the underside of the bar.

Borough doubled their lead in the 40th minute with a speculative long-range volley by Ben Austin. Altrincham’s defence struggled to deal with a left-wing corner from Matt Crabb, and when it was only half-cleared, Austin returned it with interest from fully 35 yards.

Coburn got both hands to it and should have kept it out but it hardly mattered to the Borough right-back as he wheeled away to take the acclaim of his team-mates.

After looking in control, though, Borough allowed their out-of-form hosts back into the game a minute from half-time as veteran striker Colin Little latched on to a long through-ball from Michael Welch and steered a left-foot volley past Lee Hook.

They were caught out again in the 69th minute as Altrincham, with just one point from their previous four games, clawed their way back on terms.

The Borough defence were unhappy with the award of a free-kick for a foul on substitute Joe O’Neill but there could be no complaints about the way midfielder Sean Densmore stepped up to curl the set-piece into the top corner.

It could have been even worse for Borough as Little had an 85th-minute volley deflected narrowly over, then fired a close-range chance straight at Hook deep into injury time.

Altrincham: Coburn, Lane, Welch (McGregor, 90), Smith, Young, Densmore, Wilkinson, Peyton (O’Neill, 52), Doughty, Johnson (Thornley, 66), Little. Subs: Acton, Heffernan.

Booked: Wilkinson, Young.

Eastbourne: Hook, Armstrong, Austin, Baker, Brown, Matt Crabb (Mingle, 90), Nathan Crabb, Jenkins, Pullan, Jeffery (Harding, 73), Wormull (Lovett, 73). Subs not used: Jordan, Smart.

Referee: T Harrington (England).

Attendance: 605