Jon Dahl Tomasson said John Buckley showed his inexperience after being sent off in Rovers’ defeat to Middlesbrough.

Buckley was shown a straight red card for throwing the ball at the back of Riley McGree’s head, an incident not seen by referee Leigh Doughty but one alerted to him by the linesman.

Ewood was stunned as the midfielder left the field, with McGree then volleying home what proved to be the winner moments later.

It proved to be a nightmare 12 minutes at the start of the second half for Rovers, with Marcus Forss cancelling out Ryan Hedges’ first half goal only 30 seconds after the re-start.

“John is a young lad, inexperienced, and he showed that,” Tomasson explained.

“He gave the referee a decision to make, so he needs to learn from that.

“It is (learning the hard way) but it’s understandable that the players, staff and fans are frustrated after playing that good a game and we’re left with a disappointing taste after 90 minutes.”

Buckley had worked to regain his place in the side, starting Rovers’ last three matches having previously not made the starting XI since October.

Asked if he would speak with Buckley, Tomasson said: “Yes, I will speak with John.

“We all know football is about passion, emotion and he’s a young lad, and he showed inexperience in that situation.

“I will have a chat with John for sure.”

The expectation is that Buckley will now miss three games, with the incident classed as violent conduct.

“It was one of the linesman who told him (the referee),” Tomasson added.

“We should always be able to gain trust and when you do things when you’re inexperienced, and John is young, we shouldn’t just throw him away if you can say it in that way.”

Rovers led at the break through Ryan Hedges’ sixth minute strike, and Tomasson felt they deserved more than a one goal advantage at half time, only for the game to hinge on the start of the second half.

He added: “First of all I thought it was a disappointing result to lose this game.

“I think if you look back at the whole 90 minutes we started the first half, played some excellent football, I think our fans enjoyed it, I heard that.

“We created chances, we should probably have been up by more than one goal.

“We played with intensity, were creative.

“We spoke at half time about starting well and the first 10 minutes of the second half changed the whole game

“Even with 10 men we were able to create opportunities, so we were in the game for the whole 90 minutes.

“It was a frustrating night for our fans which I understand.

“They saw some great football but will be disappointed.”

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