Joey Barton says Bristol Rovers "didn't bother" contesting the violent conduct charge against Jordan Rossiter after the draw against Shrewsbury Town.
Rossiter was charged by the FA in the wake of the 1-1 draw at the Mem on Saturday in relation to an incident in the 32nd minute involving the 25-year-old and Shrewsbury player Tom Bayliss. At a break in play, the former Liverpool and Rangers midfielder raised his arm, making contact with the loose ball and Bayliss.
Referee Sam Purkiss spoke to Rossiter amid appeals from the Shrewsbury players for a red card, but he took no further action but after viewing replays the FA issued their charge on Monday evening.
Rossiter was given until Tuesday to respond and he admitted the charge, resulting in a three-game ban that will rule him out against Morecambe tomorrow (Saturday) and the subsequent games against MK Dons and Ipswich Town, meaning he won't be available again until the visit of Lincoln City on September 17.
Barton says the FA were alerted to the incident by footage sent by Shrewsbury and he added: "It’s one of them. We looked at it from the camera angle and it looks like he’s elbowed him.
"Everything is context, isn’t it? You have to watch it in real-time. If you slow it down, and we had a panel of four referees sitting on that. My experience of sitting on those panels is once they make a decision they tend to double down on it and protect the decision that’s been made, rather than have a full investigation.
"They don’t start from a point of not wanting to find you guilty. You are already guilty in those places and you have to prove your innocence.
"When you slow it down and you look at it in slow motion, his arm does make contact with him. When you watch it in real-time, you have to argue how much of that contact and how much does he make of it. We didn’t even bother appealing it. What’s the point? There is not enough evidence there to say he hasn’t made contact with him."
Barton made clear his displeasure with the flow of the game against Shrewsbury, who were effective in breaking the game up and nullifying the atmosphere at the Mem. He expects a similar approach from Morecambe on Saturday.
"I'm looking forward to it," Barton added. "Hopefully we don't get another 5-4-1 but it looks like it based on watching them play. I was a bit ill this week and I don't know if that was (from) watching Shrewsbury play on Saturday or not. It gave me a bit of a tummy ache.
"We've got to remember we're in the entertainment business and if we allow teams who have no intention of playing football to come and spoil games of football, attendances are going to dwindle and, rightly so, people will vote with their wallet and they won't come and attend football matches.
"People have got choices to make with their money and they want to be entertained, they want to watch a really good game of football, end-to-end and teams competing and goals scored. You don't want to watch players rolling around on the floor."
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