Doncaster Rovers: Darren Ferguson blasts referee for sending off in Peterborough United’s defeat at the Keepmoat

Tyler Denton was sent off for two bookable offences - the first of which came for time wasting with 35 minutes on the clock.

Ferguson - whose side went on to surrender a lead and lose 3-1 - labelled the Denton's first yellow card 'an incredible decision' from referee Carl Boyeson and said it provided the turning point in the game.

"The turning point in the game is when the referee books my player for time wasting with 65 minutes left in the game," Ferguson said.

"It was an incredible decision.

"I've never had that in my career before.

"How you can book someone with that length of time to go is beyond me. Certainly one of my teams.

Why would we be timewasting? We're not doing any of that.

"And he actually spoke to one of my players about it 15 minutes into the game.

"For whatever reason, the ref has made his decisions.

"I felt sorry for the young boy, though he was a bit naive with his second challenge.

"When the boy fouled their winger, it should be a yellow card, it shouldn't be a second yellow."

Ferguson was also furious with the Boyeson issuing only a yellow card to Mallik Wilks after he was involved in a clash with Ivan Toney.

Wilks squared up to Toney after a foul with the Peterborough forward tumbling to the ground, suggesting a headbutt - though replays show there was no attempt to do that by Wilks.

"We thought it would be evened up when the boy headbutts Ivan but it's only a yellow," Ferguson said.

"The referee has not missed it because he booked it.

"You get booked for headbutts?"

Ferguson felt his side should have been out of sight by half time.

George Cooper put Peterborough ahead after six minutes with Denton being dismissed a minute before the break.

"We should have been 3-0 up," he said.

"There was not really as much possession as I would have wanted but we looked the more threatening team.

"They had more possession but didn't really hurt us.

"It was a great goal by Coops.

"We hit the bar from a set piece. We felt we could hurt them from set pieces, we had a scramble across the six yard box where I felt we could have scored.

"So you're going into half time thinking no problem, we're fairly comfortable.

"The game plan with Maddison, Cooper and Toney caused them all sorts of problems. We didn't have a problem with that.

"The problem was we can't keep 11 players on the pitch past half time. It's a real problem."

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