The tariff for violent conduct is three games and I'm surprised that the appeal was against the length of the suspension rather than Rovers appealing on the grounds that the red card was wrong. Or perhaps they felt Buckley might have got an extra game for a frivolous appeal which has happened in the past.

In the years I was active there was always a variety of characters with different traits amongst the referees. Some pretty much craved attention, some were reserved but by and large they just wanted to referee a game devoid of controversy. Amongst them were different tolerance levels and game management skills but ultimately the overriding priority was to apply the laws of the game and sometimes that includes the ultimate sanction, a red card. They are accountable though and there is a merit list based on delegates marks and club marks and in my ten years on the Football League several of my colleagues were thrown off for consistently poor merit league placings. Similarly being near the top would get you higher profile league games, playoffs and cup finals. It's different now because of Select Groups One and Two being full time employees of the PGMOL and having the employment rights that I, as a self employed referee didn't have. But ultimately refereeing isn't an exact science and mistakes will be made as I know from my own experiences.

Give me some examples of the same referees making 'horrendous' errors week after week. I'm not defending any referee here by the way but there is an overreaction to some decisions generally speaking. Having seen every Rovers game this season I'm struggling to think of a match where a referee has unfairly influenced the outcome of the game. I get as frustrated as anybody with decisions sometimes but try and keep a sense of perspective.

Is that any different than a player making a mistake and giving a goal away or missing an easy chance? As frustrating as it is mistakes happen because they are human.

Rovers HAVE appealed against Buckley's sending off.

He would only have been asked to look at the pitchside monitor if the VAR believed it to be a clear and obvious error irrespective of who made the decision.

In October against Swansea Callum Robinson of Cardiff was sent off in the 7th minute for throwing the ball at an opponents head. There are many others too. And according to Tomasson it was the assistant referee who told the referee what had happened. He will have advised the referee to show red card as in his judgement it was thrown with excessive force.

On the day the officials will decide the outcome and on another day Buckley might not have been sent off. Simply down to interpretation and your wider point about inconsistency is an issue in the game. What irks me more though is that Buckley put himself in a position whereby he gave the officials a decision to make. If VAR had been used last night I don't believe the red card would have been overturned because it wasn't a clear and obvious error by the officials. Whilst it's really subjective and open to interpretation I don't believe that in law the referee was wrong. It will be interesting to see if Rovers agree or not and lodge an appeal.

Sunday sees the opening of the January transfer window and for me it will be a measure of how far our DoF and the new recruitment team have come. The majority of fans can see gaping holes and weaknesses in the current squad and if the manager doesn't have the players to play the way he wants to then some new players are a must. I would also like to see some players moved out, either permanent or on loan and if possible we need to send the home contributing loanees back. It's going to be a testing time for Broughton and his team and he needs to start earning his money.

And both with newly appointed managers in the Summer. As much as it galls me to say it Kompany has rebuilt Burnley and changed the playing ethos completely without spending a fortune and it's looking odds on they will be promoted. And without talking about a project.

The referee (or assistant in this case) deemed it to be excessive. And it's their interpretation of that which counts.

We can moan about it until the cows come home but in law the referee was absolutely correct. The villain here is Buckley.

An appeal would be futile and a waste of money. It's violent conduct and it can't be dressed up as anything else. Buckley was stupid and so unprofessional.

Buckley's lack of discipline cost us tonight. We played some good stuff in the first half and the big diagonals and cross field passes had Boro in real trouble as we stretched their defence and got in behind. We could have gone in two up at half time although Boro had a couple of chances of their own. We were caught cold at the beginning of the second half as Boro came out of the blocks quicker than us. I still thought we would go on to win but Buckley really killed that notion with his infantile behaviour. Boro stepped up and got their second and it was going to be tough from there but credit to our players who pushed for an equaliser and had a couple of chances. I was annoyed with Tomasson for taking off our two most creative players and replacing them with two defensive midfielders but my real anger is towards Buckley whose idiocy cost us tonight.

You're missing the point. We are third right now and Tomasson was pretty much dismissing promotion this season. It's simply not what a manager should be saying particularly with a transfer window coming up.

And building a squad capable of staying in the Premier League comes cheap does it? Players who are capable of that want big wages which we don't pay and signing them will cost big fees. Where will that money come from? Expecting several of our youngsters to be good enough is folly. Some might but most won't. We are third in the league and the manager is dismissing talk of promotion. Does that not alarm you? Mowbray was quite rightly slaughtered for allowing last season to drift away but never came out with any ridiculous statements like Tomasson did yesterday. Going up will put £200m into the club even if we come straight back down. Why would a manager, the most senior footballing person at our club just dismiss that. If I was thinking about buying a half season ticket I simply wouldn't after that twaddle.

Swag will be creaming himself again. It doesn't appear that the Legends Lounge will be open for the Smoggies. Did anybody hear how many Forest fans took up the generous offer?

In all honesty I had far more belief at this time last season than now. We were on a great run, not conceding any goals and had a system which pretty much suited the players. Of course we'll never know but I felt with the right signings we could have gone up. Right now I have very little to inspire me into thinking we can challenge for promotion. Inconsistency, constant changes, inherent weaknesses in mentality and a manager who is talking our hope, the one thing that keeps us going, down and stifling any aspirations we have despite being third in the league.

We are approaching a transfer window too and three or four signings who hit the ground running can be the difference between playoffs and ultimately promotion. His interview was really negative and must have riled many supporters who still care and harbour ambition for our club (despite the abhorrent owners). Any potential half season ticket buyers must be having second thoughts now and in truth who can blame them. Tomasson and Broughton are treading a fine line now in respect of our patience.

Congratulations Andy. Now you'll really have to dip into your offshore account. 😂😂😂

Two of the standout moments on Boxing Day to me were two big diagonal passes by Buckley and Morton which got our side players in behind. But that was it, two in the entire game. I saw a half time statistic which had is at something like 126 successful passes of which 90 odd were in our own half. And although it's not measured I'll wager the majority were within a range of under the yards. There needs to be some variation on the safe football Tomasson has us playing. Far too much is one dimensional and the cold reality is that this brand of football won't increase any players value which throws his latest notion about increasing players worth into disarray.

It speaks volumes for the other players when a player who up until two weeks ago didn't have a future here has been our best player over the last two league games. The vast majority (including myself) saw him leaving in January and he was only picked by Tomasson because we had nobody else. He showed more aggression in the final moments yesterday than most of our team showed in the entirety of the game. We had several yellow cards but most were petty offences and this lack of real aggression has been bothering me for some time now. Maybe it stems from a lack of leadership in the current squad but on the way back yesterday we were chatting about the strong characters we have had down the years and not one of today's lot cropped up in the chat. Weak players usually have a weak mentality.

An average age of over 25 for today's starting eleven which blows Tomasson's excuse out of the water. He trots that line out like we are a team of 20 year olds.

In truth I thought a draw would have been a fair result but in the second half I thought had we showed some real attacking intent could have won. That said Sunderland had the best three players on the pitch in my opinion and our back four were decent. The rest of our team were hugely disappointing with the exception of Dack. Brereton was poor, almost a return to when he first came. Weak, easily pushed off the ball and lacking intent and purpose. Ditto Gallagher. Hirst, well he is an absolute waste of space. I don't see one redeeming feature about him and on January 1st he should be driving back down the M1 never to return. If Sam Burns or Harry Leonard aren't better than him then I give up. Tomasson's changes were perplexing as he took Dack off (again) when Brereton was blowing out of his arse and had taken a couple of knocks. Truly baffling as was his decision not to bring Markanday on. His pace and ability to run in behind would have been useful as Sunderland tired. O'Nien for Sunderland had to play centre half today due to injuries and he is about five feet and eight inches tall but we rarely put him under any aerial pressure and when we did he actually beat Gallagher, Brereton and Hurst in the air. Embarrassing for them.