Fulham striker Steve Marlet has claimed referee Matt Messias did a U-turn when red-carding him for kicking out at Birmingham midfielder Robbie Savage.
Marlet insisted the York official had indicated he and Savage would only be booked for the touchline flare-up at St Andrews on Sunday.
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| Fulham striker Steve Marlet |
But the Frenchman was then given his marching orders, while Savage escaped with a caution - much to the anger of Fulham manager Jean Tigana.
Marlet had few arguments about the actual sending-off because of the nature of his offence which means he will now have to serve a three-match ban.
But he is perplexed as to why Messias changed his mind and also how Savage escaped being dismissed for a clear tackle from behind.
Marlet said: "I tried to give Savage a kick, so I agree with the red card - but I do not understand why theother player only got a yellow card after what he did.
"The referee had also said that he would be giving out two yellow cards and then he changed his mind, so I do not understand that.
"If you try to catch someone then you get a red card, so I agree with that - but didn't Savage catch me?
"Maybe I snapped, but the referee should also understand that, because we were already down to 10 men, I was playing on my own up front and I was tired.
"Sometimes referees should be more understanding, but he wasn't."
Marlet is hoping Fulham can now turn the corner in the Barclaycard Premiership after ending a run of four successive defeats despite Rufus Brevett also being red-carded for handling on the line in the first half.
He said: "If we show the same sort of fight in the other games, then I think things can become good for us.
"We used to play like that although sometimes we lost the focus at the end of a game and would concede many goals in the last few minutes. This time we kept our focus for 90 minutes."