Tony Mowbray felt the late sending off for Derrick Williams proved key to their defeat at Bournemouth as they exited the Carabao Cup at the third round.

Williams was dismissed for a straight red card as he picked up the ball after slipping under pressure from Callum Wilson.

That came in the second of four added minutes, with Bournemouth going on to win a corner from which they scored to make it 3-2 through Wilson.

Rovers had battled back from 2-0 down through goals from Craig Conway and an Adam Armstrong penalty as they looked to take the game to penalties.

On the late defeat, Mowbray said: “I’m happy enough with the team. I thought we started well enough and had the ball in the back of the net after 60 seconds.

“We had a 15 or 20 minute spell when I thought we showed them a bit too much respect and their talented players got through our press.

“For the rest of the game I thought we were in there competing well.

“The referee gave them a ridiculously soft second goal, that was never a penalty kick, but we take that one on the chin.

“We fought our way back in to it and I thought over 90 minutes it was a good game and we competed well with an established Premier League side with some expensive footballers out there.”

Williams will now be banned for Saturday’s visit of Nottingham Forest and Mowbray added: “God knows what Derrick was thinking, he just slipped and picked the ball up.

“It surprised everyone but it was the right decision (to send him off) as he denied the lad a goalscoring opportunity.

“I haven’t really watched it back but why he didn’t just lay down on the ball or use his body or chest and let the boy try and kick it away from him I don’t know.

“I thought it was strange and ultimately in the end it cost us. We were not going to win the Carabao Cup though and we have a huge game to prepare for on Saturday.

“Derrick is one of our main headers of the ball and there was every chance he could have headed the ball away as we had done for most of the night.

“But it’s done now and Derrick dealt with things pretty well all night. Would they have scored that goal with him on the pitch? We’ll never know, the ball ended up in the back of our net and it’s 3-2.”

Mowbray made six changes from the side which won at Stoke City, with five of that starting XI not travelling.

Captain Charlie Mulgrew is expected to return for the visit of Forest and could take the place of Williams.

“I’m not sure there will be much change from the team which went to Stoke and won.” he said.
“I gave opportunities to some players to play, I thought they applied themselves well and did a good job.

“But they understand. We had a good performance at Stoke, deservedly won the game and I don’t think there will be many changes.”