PLAYER manager Andy Preece was baffled by the Graham Barrow dismissal at Bristol Rovers.

He said: "I can't understand why the referee did that with the throw because I think we took it five yards back from where it went out.

"But it looked as though he'd been trying to do something like that through the game.

"He just needed to blow his whistle to show his authority. If Rovers had been chasing the game at 2-1 instead of us I couldn't see him doing that.

"However, that's not why we lost the game, it's just an incident that happened.

"What cost us was our performance in the first half.

"We didn't really start well and that gave Bristol Rovers confidence. The first half was just not acceptable and we didn't seem to have the fire and drive.

"But we have done well over the last seven games and we've got to get another run going.

"We've got three of our next four games at home and we must try to give ourselves a platform to kick on."