BBN ROY Hodgson was furious with Dutch referee Rene Temming's handling of last night's UEFA Cup tie in Lyon when Blackburn Rovers went out of the competition in a controversial first round tie.

The Rovers boss feels his team have been a victim of refereeing decisions in the past few games when they have had three men sent off in successive matches and said: "I am absolutely disgusted at what I have seen happen to us this week."

Hodgson said the Rovers players felt they had been unfairly treated and described the referee as the "wrong man at the wrong time."

His verdict on last night's tie was: "We were given second prize when we should have been given first prize.

"I am proud of the performance, I thought we did everything we could but, once again, we find ourselves on the wrong end of a result and it's not totally our fault.

"The players are very frustrated, I have to choose my words carefully but they feel they were treated badly, treated unfairly.

"No fault of the French team, I might add. Certainly no shadow should fall on them.

"Obviously the fellow made an incredible swan dive after receiving a nudge (for the penalty).

"But apart from that, I am not casting any shadow over them.

"We were just unlucky. We got the wrong man at the wrong time.

"I don't understand why, having been consistently fouled in the back, Jason Wilcox should have been warned for a protest.

"It seems to me that if we are going to improve the quality and standard of play it's better to give warnings to the players who persistently foul rather than the ones who are flat on their back complaining about the foul.

"I've been delighted with a lot of performances this year but I am really looking for results.

"But I thought it was a very brave effort and once again we find ourselves on the wrong end of two very dubious, contentious decisions.

"We found ourselves 1-0 behind in the first few minutes after a good header in my opinion from Christian Dailly.

"It was the type of header which he produced seven or eight times later in the game without a free kick being given against him.

"From the free kick our wall was pushed back a long way and we're 1-0 down.

"We fought our way back at 1-1 only to concede a penalty and, from our position, we were hard hit there -- not to mention the bookings and the sending-off.

"So I thought the team battled very well against all the odds and, in fact, we came very close to scoring the third goal."

Rovers Reserves visit Preston at Deepdale tonight.

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