Bradford City boss Graham Alexander and Doncaster Rovers rival Grant McCann critical of refereeing in League Two Yorkshire derby

Alongside the player cautions, both bosses were also handed yellow cards by the Lancashire official in a game which could never really be described as overly fractious.Alexander was also angered by the officials’ failure to punish some perceived time-wasting from Rovers goalkeeper Timothee Lo-Tutala earlier.

The game ended 1-1 with a late goal from ex-Doncaster loanee Tyler Smith cancelling out an opener on the stroke of half-time from Luke Molyneux.Alexander said: "It was like the game went back 15 years. It was just all that time-wasting and slow (play) and the amount of free-kicks given against us for nothing.

"But they just fell on the ball and he gave it. Our centre-half Sam Stubbs got booked for being elbowed in the face. Unbelievable.“And then the keeper, who has played like a keeper I played with 20 years ago, was time-wasting on every opportunity and then he gets booked with 15 seconds to go. Come on!

"That was the one thing I asked the fourth (official) - and he could see what the keeper was doing on everything - and he was going: ‘Yes, we are going to deal with it.’ Just don’t let it be a booking in the last 15 seconds…

"We were given really stringent directives at the start of the season and meetings and examples of this and how it was not going to go in football.

"But that was a game that I have not seen for a long time on that side of it. It was quite extreme.

"I thought the bar for yellow cards was set really low and the ref has probably given himself too tough a task to get it any higher and set the standard for the rest of the night with a couple of early ones.”

McCann was also left scratching his head by the performance of Doughty and left frustrated.He continued: "I don’t know what the referee was doing in the first half. I think he was booking everyone for any tackle and in the second half, he calmed himself down.

"It’s just frustrating that he sets off in that sort of manner. Seven yellow cards (in the first half) and then Graham Alexander booked in the second half, it was just ridiculous. I know he’s a good referee, but he let it get out of control.

"I should not have raised my arms (to get booked), that’s what it was. But you get frustrated on the sidelines for little things.”