Tom Eaves picked up a booking for dissent against Wigan on Saturday and manager Steve Lovell had sympathy for the striker.

Eaves was yellow-carded by referee Nick Kinseley when play continued, after feeling he had been fouled.

Lovell said: “Tom gets frustrated, he gets pulled all over the place, by centre-halves and hardly ever gets anything, it is a shame.

“He works hard and he has got his goals this year, but he doesn’t get much protection from the referees. He has been pulled all over the place but he doesn’t get any free-kicks against him.”

Eaves, now on nine cautions for the season, is just one more yellow card away from an automatic two-game ban.

He wasn’t the only one showing his frustrations on the pitch, with Max Ehmer giving team-mate Luke O’Neill some words of advice in the second half.

It was no issue for Lovell, however.

“It’s a game of football,” he said. “If people aren’t doing their jobs I expect them to get onto each other.

“They forget about it in the dressing room, they are all good mates, but when we cross that white line you’ve got to do a job. If you’re not, you have to be told. There is nothing wrong with that.

“Max was a bit disappointed with Luke. He left them two versus two I think and we never do that. Luke should have been tucking round and he had a go at him for that, which is right.

“Luke accepted it and put his hand up, fine, no problem.”