Joey Barton says Luke McCormick must learn his lesson after his red card proved costly for Bristol Rovers in Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat to relegation rivals Burton Albion.
The Gas were edging the contest at the Pirelli Stadium until McCormick received a second yellow card seven minutes after half time.
Jonny Smith struck the decisive goal just three minutes later, whipping in from 20 yards to take Burton above Rovers in the table and leaving the Gas just a point clear of the relegation zone.
McCormick had been booked on 11 minutes for hauling down Ryan Edwards as he looked to break free on the counter attack, leaving the midfielder, on loan from Chelsea, under referee Charles Breakspear’s microscope.
And McCormick’s decision to kick the ball away on 52 minutes as Burton looked to take a quick throw, with keeper Jordi van Stappershoef out of his goal following a miscued clearance, saw Breakspear brandish a second yellow.
“That’s ultimately the key decision that flips the contest,” Gas boss Barton said at full time.
“I thought we should have been at least a goal or maybe even two up at half time, but there was a combination of good defending and a couple of good saves from the goalkeeper.
“We asked the lads to lift it second half and I thought we were much the better football side, there was only going to be one winner and it was a very comfortable night until we went a man behind.
“Obviously at that point, it gave them a little bit of a boost, but by the time we reorganised and found ourselves a man down and a goal down.
“Credit to the boys, they still played some good stuff and kept plugging away right to the end and Josh Grant has a great chance at the back post. We think he’s pushed, but like most things for us tonight, the referee missed it.
“He seemed to see everything and was very pedantic about every little decision to do with Rovers, but on the flipside of that he was quite lenient when it came to the Burton Albion players.
“It’s quite disappointing, because if it was down to football and the officials were kept out of it, I didn’t envisage a problem from Burton.”
Barton believes 22-year-old McCormick will learn from his lapse in judgement on Tuesday and play a valuable role in Rovers’ remaining 15 games.
“Macca’s obviously very disappointed, but he’s a young player and he’s here on loan to learn lessons, and that will be a lesson he will learn and carry on into his career,” Barton said.
“It’s disappointing, but we win together and we lose together. He’ll be superb for us between now and the end of the season and I’m sure he will turn in performances that will go some way to making up for that error.
“You look at the two incidents in isolation, the first one is very early in the game and if you’re going to book players for that, you’ve got to book everybody, which he didn’t do.
“The second one, he’s kicked it into the advertising hoarding, he hasn’t kicked it the length of the field or into the stand, but when you get a stickler of a referee for the rules you know you run the risk when you’re on that second yellow and leaving the pitch.”
