Sharks coach Gary Gold said after the 23-21 loss to the Lions on Saturday that he hoped referees were not making calls based on his players' recent bad reputation. Red cards and suspensions to bad boys Bismarck du Plessis, Frans Steyn and Jean Deysel have given the Sharks a slimy reputation with the officials.At Ellis Park, Stuart Berry, who officiated in the Sharks' 52-10 loss to the Crusaders when Deysel put a knee to Matt Todd's head, sin-binned centre André Esterhuizen for a late and high tackle. The Lions were not able to capitalise on the one-man advantage but the sending-off made the Sharks' chances of clawing back into the game that much harder."They say when things don't go your way, they really don't go your way. That yellow card was unbelievably frustrating and it was a wrong call. We couldn't have spoken more about discipline and we are not an ill-disciplined bunch of guys," Gold said."I'd be unbelievably disappointed and angry if that call was made on reputation because every incident in a game has got to be taken on its merits. I'm debating whether it was a late tackle or not because he had committed to the tackle."It was definitely not a yellow card. It was ridiculous. This is a contact sport. You're not allowed to tackle a guy late and there's a sanction for that called a penalty. But now you're going to start sending people off the field when it was touch and go whether he was committed to the tackle or not."He's a tall guy but he had no malice and didn't go for the neck trying to hurt anybody. We want to play tough but we want to play fair. It's a frustrating time - dealing with injuries and suspensions - but we have to man up and stay in the fight," he said.Despite a promising first half performance in which they took a 14-11 lead, the Sharks weren't able to get out of their rut. Odwa Ndungane's switch from wing to fullback stabilised things at the back, while his cohesion with fellow Springbok Lwazi Mvovo provided spark.Esterhuizen's midfield break led to the Sharks' first try but they were unable to match the Lions blow-for-blow in open contest. Faf de Klerk was all over the visitors and produced one of his best performances."We are not in a great place at the moment. We can put our hands up and admit that," said Gold."We didn't capitulate and if we had we could have conceded a couple more tries. I'm proud that we didn't do that. Many may write us off now but that's fine, we've got a lot to prove still. This bunch of players can still get things right."..