'It could become a farce'- Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson not impressed with new EFL refereeing crackdown

Both Ferguson and his opposite number Ruben Selles were booked for their touchline reactions in Posh’s 1-0 win and were joined in the book by ten players (four Posh and six Reading).

Reading were given three dissent bookings and the rest of the cards were for fouls, apart from Ricky-Jade Jones being cautioned in the closing seconds for simulation.

Ferguson was left particularly angered and claimed that he shown the yellow card for throwing his water bottle down in frustration when his side gave away the ball.

The high number of bookings, along with the eight minutes of added time in the second half, were due to an EFL crackdown launched for this season to overhaul timekeeping and to cut down on timewasting and dissent both on the pitch and the touchline.

Ferguson was left unimpressed with the new style of officiating, however, suggesting that the art of tackling and the entertainment factor in the game is set to be lost.

He said: “I don’t know why we have to change things or what the change is for.

“That wasn’t a dirty game, there wasn’t one really bad tackle yet Reading have had six bookings, plus Ruben and I have been booked.

“One of my players gave the ball away, I threw my bottle down and I got booked for that- it’s just frustration at my players, I’m not having a go at the referee. It could become a farce.

“It takes the entertainment out of the game. We want tackles, we want people to stay on the pitch, we don’t want red cards, we don’t want twelve bookings when there’s not been a tackle in the game.

“There some bookings and rightly so but I don’t see why we have to change it, we’re taking away the art of tackling. I imagine there were bookings left right and centre today. I don’t know why we’ve changed it.